Forgotten
by ArmoredCoreNineBall
Summary: A memory phenomenon causes all memory of the 3rd ranked level 5 esper to be erased. While she finds comfort in knowing a certain misfortunate boy is unaffected, signs point the event to being part of something much more sinister. And the appearance of a unknown esper isn't making the mystery any easier to unravel, either!
1. Phenomena

**Well... for those who have followed my other works: i am finally among the living again! And trying to get back into the writing flow of things with a new story! for old-time readers, i hope you enjoy the new story, and for new-readers... well, I hope you enjoy the new story as well! Here's to getting back into writing!**

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"You know, he probably is gonna wreak the whole thing, it's kinda what he does…" A lone man with blue eyes and straight light blue hair wearing a blue coat and black slacks said as he strolled down the streets of Academy City, talking on his cell phone. Such an occurrence here wasn't uncommon, but this particular one had more of a purpose. "It's not gonna work on him~ and he's gonna be all puffy and mad once he finds out who your trying to eliminate with it."

"Doesn't matter." A woman's voice on the other side of the line replied. "It has to be done… plus so many others have gone head to head with him, I'm kind of looking forward to the confrontation."

"It's all going to fall apart just because you're targeting the number three… and you want into that boy's pants. You women are devilish creatures~" The man said with a joyous tune.

"I-I do not want that kind of involvement with him!" The woman stuttered back.

"Sure you don't~ that's why you're trying to take out the only one of his lady friends who's got the nerve stake a claim if prompted~" The man laughed while the woman growled in discontent. "Relax, I'm only playin girl~ But ya know your little trick wont work on the number three either, and on top of that, she isn't even in town."

"I know, but it makes the situation that much more interesting…" The woman replied.

"Gotta admit, you got a point, I don't even know how things will play out~ I just hope I'm in this game little roster of players, it'd be boring to play by the sidelines." The man grinned.

"Don't go off making a nuisance out of yourself, you know the job you've been given." The woman sighed.

"It's fine boss! Your little troublemaker will behave~"

"…Should you really be addressing me as your boss if you volunteered to help? You are a very strange little man."

"Doesn't matter to me, just an interesting scenario is enough to keep me happy~" The man smiled. "Just don't go getting cold feet right before prime-time; you'll be the main villain of this game you know~"

**-Next Day, Academy City Entrance-**

"There, you see? Spending some time away with your mother wasn't so bad, now was it?"

"It was alright… except when you wouldn't stop trying to push all those weird foods and drinks onto me!" This person is Misaka Mikoto, a level five esper of Academy City, the third ranked, and thus, the third strongest. She was an Electromaster, and as such had the ability to generate and freely control electricity, and has become known as "The Railgun," due to an attack of hers where she fires off metal objects with the simile properties of an actual railgun blast, and with power and after effects to match. She was currently riding in a car with her mother, Misaka Misuzu, coming back from a small vacation during Mikoto's summer break. And after the events of the past few months of being involved with one certain unlucky level zero Kamjou Touma, dealing with other espers and foreign wizards, was very well earned.

"But I was just taking care of your health for you Mikoto-chan~ making sure you grow up in all the right ways." Misuzu replied happily.

"In 'what' right ways are you referring too…?" Mikoto's voice was low, and gave the impression of being annoyed.

"The kinds that will help you get yourself a nice boy~ like Kamijou-san." Misuzu answered.

"W-what the hell are you talking about!?" Mikoto shouted, flustered. "Y-you think I'd want someone like that!? Don't be ridiculous mom!"

"The more you deny it the more obvious it is~ you're as red as a tomato." Misuzu replied, causing Mikoto to blush harder.

"W-who's denying anything! I-I don't k-know what your talking about!" Mikoto started to laugh nervous while her mother just sighed with a smile. Her daughter was so adorable there trying to fight off her own emotions like that. She was obviously in love, and was doing whatever she could to deny it entirely, even trying to deny herself. Misuzu's daughter was a tsundere, through and through, she could only wonder what kinds of things that her daughter dragged that Kamijou boy through, oblivious to the fact that Mikoto has been chasing the spiky-haired teen around for quite some time. It wasn't too long before she rolled the car to the front entrance of Mikoto's dorm room, the one for students from Tokiwadai Middle School. Mikoto got out get her luggage from vacation, wave good-bye to her hyper-active mother, and then walk toward the dorms. But something in the air felt… off. It all looked the same, but something wasn't quite right… and that feeling proved itself accurate once Mikoto met up with the dorm supervisor.

"This dorm is for Tokiwadai students only, miss." The still scary dorm supervisor said the moment they made eye-contact, her stone-cold eyes still running chills down Mikoto's spine, but the words only led to confusion.

"Well… yeah, that is why I'm here." Mikoto sighed. "I just got back from vacation, and I just wanna unload my things so settle back in…"

"I say again, this dorm is exclusive to Tokiwadai students. You may have the uniform, but that doesn't man you can live her." The dorm supervisor replied.

"What's gotten into you? It's me, Misaka Mikoto! Number three level five, Ace of Tokiwadai? Is any of this ringing any bells?" Mikoto sighed; she didn't want to put up with this after that car drive with her mom.

"No, that isn't ringing any bells, miss." The dorm supervisor's eyes suddenly narrowed. "I've never heard of you, nor have I ever seen you before in my life."

"…Ehh?" Mikoto was starting to get confused. The dorm supervisor that is always disciplining her and her roommate suddenly doesn't know who she is? It felt like a really bad prank. A midst her confusion, another girl came down from the upper-levels. It was Shirai Kuroko, who was dressed in the same uniform as Mikoto, who had auburn hair tied into two curly pigtails, each one tied with a red ribbon. Though under normal circumstances, such a random meeting would be inconvenient, but to Mikoto it was perfect. "Kuroko! Finally some normalcy, can you talk some sense into the Dorm Supervisor? She apparently doesn't know me or something…" Kuroko looked between the Dorm Supervisor and Mikoto several times before speaking.

"…What's going on here?" Kuroko looked toward the Supervisor.

"No idea, this girl just came inside with her suitcase claiming to be back from vacation." The Supervisor responded. Mikoto was dumbfounded.

"W-what the hell!? Stop messing with me Kuroko! This is important!" Mikoto shouted.

"How do you know my name? I've never seen you before." Kuroko replied.

"W-what are you…?" Mikoto trailed off, frustrated and confused. Normally, she'd have to beat Kuroko off with a stick, but now she was acting like Mikoto never existed. She was abruptly forced out of the Tokiwadai dorm house, and promptly began to wander. "What's going on…? This isn't making any sense." Mikoto tried to call her other two friends, Saten Ruiko and Uiharu Kazari, but got similar responses, complete lack of knowledge of knowing her and surprise that Mikoto had their numbers in the first place. Even more frustrated, something clicked. There was a second level five in Tokiwadai, Shokuhou Misaki, who had the ability "Mental Out." She could use her powers to manipulate and transform the minds and memories and even emotions of other people, but due to the nature of Mikoto's ability, such powers had no effect on Mikoto at all, which lead to the two having constant disputes. While Mikoto wouldn't be affected, her friends could be. With a goal finally in sight, she ran through the city to try to find Misaki, fully intent on blasting her with the full force of her electricity and to force her to fix what damage has been done.

Unfortunately, however, Shokuhou Misaki, Misaka Mikoto's most hated enemy, had the exact same condition; a complete and total lack of knowledge of Mikoto and her existence.

Fear started to set in. Misaki more than likely wouldn't be above wiping her friend's memories, but wouldn't play along like that; she'd be more likely to rub it in Mikoto's face. Mikoto then began to run around the city, trying to track down any sort of person who she could of had contact with, seeing absolutely no results. She even considered at one point trying to find Accelerator, the number one esper, considering his involvement with the Level 6 Shift Project and that his Vector Change ability would prevent any sort of ability from reaching him, but quickly dismissed the idea because she had no way to locate the city's strongest esper. She even tried to find any of her sisters/clones around town, but found nothing. Even the local store owner, the store in which she frequented for snacks and manga, had no knowledge of her. She was frightened and running around frantically and before she knew it was starting to get dark, and she found herself in a park where she always seemed to find herself, the one with the broken vending machine that ate her 10,000 yen bill during her first year in Academy City.

"**CHASER!"** Desperate for any kind of normalcy, she violently kicked the side of the machine, and like so many times before, it spat out a random drink. Even in a world were Misaka Mikoto didn't exist, these vending machines, as if connected through a psychic link, had an inert fear of Mikoto's violent outbursts, and bribed Mikoto out of fear of being hit again. The drink did little to clam her nerves though, her mind was racing. What was she going to do? Where was she going to sleep? Would her own bank card even work while everyone is like this? So many questions that she had no answers too, all converging at once. Mikoto felt like her head was going to explode. At least it did, before a familiar voice rang in her ear.

"Kicking the vending machines is why they all break down all the time and eat people's money, you know." Mikoto turned to see one Kamijou Touma, in his usual outfit of a white outer-shirt, orange undershirt, and jeans, all accompanied by his trademark spiky-black hair. Almost on impulse, sparks came from Mikoto's bangs; she was angry, and needed something that could take her abuse to even slightly feel better.

"I'll do what I want when I want; I don't need someone like you judging me!" She violently discharged bolts of electricity toward Touma. Like their usual encounters, Touma raised up his right arm and after a familiar cracking sound, the electricity vanished on contact, as if it was never there. Mikoto was panting, releasing all her anger at once really took it out of her. It was only after did she remember the current situation, and began to regret her decision, just as Touma was looking at her and his hand back and forth in confusion. "I'm sorry…" Mikoto sat down on a bench, feeling depressed. "I shouldn't have snapped at you… you probably don't even know who I am, do you? I wouldn't blame you… all over the course of one vacation I'm forgotten and cast aside…" She hugged her knees to her chest, trying to isolate herself. She was uncomfortable. She felt unwanted. Lost. Fear and depression was slamming into her full force as Touma slowly walked toward her… and promptly flicked her in the ear, waking her up from her depressing mood for a split second.

"Ow! What was that for you-?"

"What the hell are you talking about biri-biri?" Touma cut her off.

"…Biri-biri?" Mikoto leaned forward, her eyes full of desperation upon hearing Touma's nickname for her. "You… know me? You… remember me…?" Her voice cracked. Touma sighed.

"How could I forget the girl who tries to electrocute me every time we meet? What the hell has gotten into you today Misaka? You sick or something?" Touma scratched the back of his head, confused. Mikoto's heart skipped a beat.

The one person out of an entire city that had completely forgotten her that actually knew who she was stood before her. The one in which she had a secret crush on. The Imagine Breaker himself, Kamijou Touma.

She jumped from her seat and tackled Touma into a hug, knocking him to the ground, gripping him as tightly as she could. Touma was about to shouted and shove her off, but the sound of sobbing stopped him; Mikoto was crying into his chest. He was completely confused, and had no idea what was going on, or why he was suddenly the subject of the situation. The only thing he could think of was to return the hug to try and make her feel better, which cause Mikoto to hold tighter. It was some time before she calmed down enough to try speaking again.

"So… what's wrong?" Touma asked. Mikoto sniffled a little.

"W-well… Eep!" Mikoto suddenly shot up off Touma's body after realizing their position.

"…So many mood swings." Touma scratched his head.

"W-why'd you let me do that!? You idiot!" Mikoto shouted, blushing a bright red in response to her own lack of self control.

"Forget about that, what's wrong?" Touma's face turned serious.

"…You're the first person to know who I am today." Mikoto looked down.

"Eh? What do you mean?"

"I mean no one knows who the hell I am! It's like I was never born!" Mikoto shouted.

"Even Shirai-san…?" Touma asked slowly. Receiving a nod in response, Touma's face turned grim, in full awareness of how obsessed Kuroko was with her 'Onee-sama,' at any given time. "T-then this is truly a serious problem…"

"…Why do you still remember me?" Mikoto looked up from the ground, focusing on the boy in front of her.

"Well… it could be the obvious explanation..." Touma replied, holding up his right hand. Mikoto focused on it for a moment, the answer indeed being obvious. Touma's right arm had its own special ability, the Imagine Breaker, which has the ability to completely negate any sort of supernatural phenomena on contact, so it would stand to reason that his right hand would prevent his memories from being altered by such a wide-spread event. And even if it did affect him, the moment he'd touch his head, any changes would be negated anyway. But that didn't matter too much; Touma wasn't the target of attack this time.

It was her.

"What are you going to do?" Touma broke the silence.

"Eh? What do you mean?"

"You obviously can't stay in your dorm, where are you going to stay?"

"O-oh… now that I think about it… I really don't know. I don't even know if I have money in my bank account anymore… depending on how far this all goes…" Mikoto thought out loud, and then looked down, feeling worse... "…It's not like I got a friend that will put me up like you do with Index." After hearing this, Touma sighed.

"Haa… funny you should mention that…" Touma said.

"Eh? What's wrong?" Mikoto looked up.

"Index left yesterday, she's visiting her friends from Necessarius. She'll be gone for about a week or so…" Touma said reluctantly. Last night was the first night in well over three months that he got to sleep in a proper bed; it felt too good to be true.

"S-so… you're all alone then…?" Mikoto asked hesitantly, and Touma slowly nodded, but Mikoto suddenly stood up and turned from Touma so he couldn't see her face. "I-I see! D-don't worry, I-I'll stay in a hotel or something! No big deal! I wouldn't like to impose… m-maybe I'll still have some m-money I can use, yeah!" She stuttered constantly as she hid her now bright red face. Touma knew… he knew that Mikoto would be too proud to ask for a place to stay; that she'd be too embarrassed to upfront ask. He sighed.

It was times like this.

Times LIKE this!

He disliked being the good guy. Such misfortune.

"…You can stay with me Misaka." Touma said, deciding to stand up himself.

"Y-you don't have to put me up! I-I'll be fine!" Mikoto stuttered again.

"Misaka Mikoto." Touma suddenly said seriously, causing Mikoto to turn around in surprised of hearing her full name. Touma had a little blush, thinking about that yet another girl was going to be staying at his home for an unknown period of time. "P-please accept my offer… it wouldn't sit well with me if I let someone suffer during their time of need, even if it's just a matter of a place to stay…"

"A-are… y-you sure?" Mikoto managed to say. Touma nodded.

"I-it's fine really… might be more convenient, I know a guy who might be able to help you out so…" Touma trailed off. He didn't like asking for help, especially from this particular person.

**-Touma's Dormitory Complex, Outside Touma's Neighbor's room-**

"Eh? You want to ask me for help, Kami-yan~?" Tsuchimikado Motoharu. Level zero with an immensely powerful regeneration ability. Magician. Spy. All of these things could be used to describe this particular blond-haired-open-Hawaiian-shirt and sunglasses-wearing individual.

"No grief today, please?" Touma sighed as Mikoto looked back and forth between them both in curiosity.

"Oho~ Kami-yan's playing tough guy today ~ and with a girl too! I wonder if he's just trying to impress her…" Motoharu laughed, the comment triggering a blush from Mikoto.

"Tsuchimikado! Listen to ME!" Touma shouted, trying to force Motoharu to take him seriously.

"Aye aye… what seems to be the problem captain?" Motoharu said faking a pirate accent to further torment his sudden guest. Touma sighed, taking that as the closest thing to Motoharu agreeing to help.

"Tell me, the girl I'm with, do you recognize her?" Touma questioned, stepping aside to let Motoharu get a better look at Mikoto.

"…Can't say that I do, though she does look like a rich ojou-sama. Why do you ask? You interested in her and seeking my approval Kami-yan~? I appreciate the sentiment but wouldn't your own father be better suited for this…?" Motoharu laughed again, flustering Mikoto even more. The Spy took careful account of the response from her.

"Ok… now humor me for a second here…" Touma said, slowly approaching Motoharu… and then punching him in the face with his right hand. "That's for griefing me when I'm trying to have a serious conversation with you, bastard!"

"Oww! Kami-yan! That's too rough for friendly banter!"

"It's not support to be friendly at all!" Touma shouted.

"J-Just what kind of relationship do you and your friends have you idiot!?" Mikoto looked at the situation unfolding before her.

"You shouldn't be asking me that with contempt when your relationship with your roommate is just as weird…" Touma answered. As much as Mikoto would like to argue, Touma did have a point. "Now… Tsuchimikado, look at her again, can you tell me if you remember her now…"

"Well… now that you mention it…" Motoharu's tone and facial features suddenly became serious. "Misaka Mikoto, Tokiwadai Middle School second year, ranked number three of the level-fives, nicknamed 'The Railgun.' Has an unhealthy borderline lesbian but one-sided relationship with her roommate in which she wants no part of because there is a certain-"

"S-shut up! H-how did you know all of that!?" Mikoto shouted, interrupting him. Some of that was very personal information she'd rather NOT have seen go public. Especially considering the piece of information Motoharu was about to divulge involved the boy she came here with.

"It's my job to know things about people, especially the hard-to-find bits! But more importantly though, Kami-yan, you know what it means if I could only remember after you hit me, right?" Motoharu asked. Touma nodded.

"Supernatural phenomena. And if it was able to get you too, then it'd have to be magic." Touma answered. Motoharu nodded. "I was actually here to ask you if you knew anything about why you couldn't remember that seemed odd; you're not the only one who doesn't remember Misaka at the moment."

"So it's widespread eh… touchy business then… I haven't heard of any sort of planned attack on Academy City, nor are there any particular factions that would have anything against a random esper..." Motoharu himself seemed confused, a very rare occurrence indeed. "Plus if it were an organization attempting to take on the city, then why would they just wipe the memories of just a single person?"

"Wait… your suggesting that it's just a single person specifically targeting me?" Mikoto interjected.

"It would make sense considering the culprit is using… demoralize, and then strike when the target's defenses are down. It's a common tactic. It wouldn't be far fetched to believe that someone preformed a memory altering spell with the full intention of you finding out, leading to a distraught emotional state in which to use to strike you down." Motoharu leaned against the railing of his doorway.

"But who would do something like this just to attack Misaka?" Touma scratched his head.

"I don't know… I've fought with magicians before, but I don't think I've made them have any grudges… at least not ones large enough to… try and kill me…" Mikoto trailed off, thinking.

"Tsuchimikado, is there any way you can look into it? Finding magicians with spells for this kind of situation; maybe find us some clues as to where they might be?" Touma asked.

"That won't be too much of a problem. I got a thing or two that can prevent me from having my brain edited now that I can see it coming. I'll check around the magic side of things for any signals. All I can tell you for now is that a spell of this magnitude can only be casted in the area it's affecting, so the caster was defiantly in Academy City… and if they are targeting Misaka Mikoto, he or she will more than likely be staying here till the job is done, possibly recasting the spell at regular intervals. Aside from that, I don't have much for you to go on."

"Alright… I guess we'll have to take a look around tomorrow, thanks Tsuchimikado." Touma turned toward his door. "Umm… Misaka? Can you wait out here for a moment? My room isn't exactly ready for guests. It shouldn't take more than a minute, just got to clean up a little."

"Sure… I don't mind waiting for awhile…" Mikoto replied, still thinking about why someone would try to kill her in such an underhanded way. Touma nodded and entered his apartment, closing the door behind him while Mikoto was lost in thought. Why would someone want her dead? She didn't set anyone off… did she? She mulled it over for awhile as Motoharu approached her from behind.

"…in which she wants no part of because there is a certain boy out there she desperately wants all to herself~" Mikoto lit up like a Christmas tree, turning around quickly trying to cover Motoharu's mouth, even though he had already finished his statement.

"W-what the h-hell is s-saying that a-all about!?" Mikoto stuttered out.

"Ya know~ staying in his house is the perfect timing to leave an impression~" Motoharu grinned.

"…Perfect timing to leave an impression…" Mikoto absentmindedly repeated what the Spy said, furiously shaking her head when she realized it. "W-why bring stuff up l-like that!? I d-don't l-l-like him that way! How c-could I!?"

"Denying your own heart is juuuust gonna make it harder for yourself in a long run, I wonder how long it will be before you can't even look at him without turning such a bright color~"

"J-just shut up! I d-don't know what your t-talking about!" Mikoto turned around again, crossing her arms and desperately trying to fight the blush covering her face.

"…Misaka-san." Motoharu suddenly sounded serious, at least slightly. "Do you think you can take good care of Kami-yan for me?"

"E-eh? W-why are you asking such a random question?" Mikoto turned slightly.

"Because in the event you're the target… Kami-yan might be targeted too, because he's immune to their magic. If they aren't going after you directly, that means they more than likely can't fight you in a straight up fight, so they will most likely target those who are unaffected by their tactic, and those close to you. He fits the bill for both, so he would be the highest mark for them." Motoharu stopped for a moment to let what he was saying sink in.

"…Plus, that idiot does like to throw himself into danger, especially to help out people… like he's trying to do for me right now." Mikoto added.

"Exactly." Motoharu nodded. "I won't always be around to keep an eye out. I may not look or act like it, but I do consider Kami-yan to be one of my best friends. So, can you keep him from pushing himself too hard for me?"

"…And why do you think you can trust me with such responsibility?" Mikoto asked testily.

"Because he trusted you enough to let himself get hit openly by your most powerful attacks and not kill him on a particular night that I'm sure I don't need to go further into detail about." Motoharu answered. Mikoto's eyes widened, but then closed. Of course. This man's job is to know a little bit about everything, or so she was told. If he knew such personal information about her, knowledge of the Level 6 Shift experiment would make sense. She was curious; what kinds of other friends does Kamijou Touma have?

"…I'll look after him and make sure he stays alive." Mikoto responded. Motoharu smiled.

"If you ever wanna know the stuff Kami-yan is into to try and get his attention, feel free to ask. I have a noticeably large file on him too~"

"Y-you just ruined the moment!" Mikoto shouted.

**-5 Minutes Later, Touma's Apartment-**

"…It's surprisingly cleaner than I expected." Mikoto said openly.

"I had to clean up a little, admittedly. I got a little messy in the night and felt too lazy to fix it up in the morning. Go on, make yourself at home. I'll cook something for dinner." Touma said.

"…You cook?" Mikoto asked, surprised.

"I got to; I'm not a super-rich ojou-sama with unlimited money." Touma replied.

"Right, you're just a poor little solitary man." Mikoto shot back.

"Good; glad we got an understanding. I'll fix something up, sit wherever, you can watch TV if you want." Touma said, putting on what seemed like an apron before entering a somewhat small kitchen. Mikoto took up the Imagine Breaker's offer by plopping herself down on the edge of Touma's bed. It was surprisingly comfortable.

"I wonder where I'm gonna sleep… he didn't make a move to get a futon for me… least not yet." Mikoto wondered. She looked around, under normal circumstances, she'd be barley able to control her emotions, being in the same room that Touma stays in, but the gravity of the situation beat it out. She was in a place unknown to her; none of her things were here except her luggage. It was small, not like her dorm room at all. Nothing at all was familiar at all; the thought of being completely abandoned started to sink in again. But something caught her eye. A tiny little figure of Gekota, her favorite cute character, on a little phone-strap connected to a cell phone. Touma's cell phone. She smiled; it looked like he shined it recently. "That idiot… he probably only holds onto it because I told him to… but he still takes care of it like its important…" She knew that Touma had no particular care for anything she saw as cute, especially Gekota, but it still warmed her heart to see that Touma had taken care of it, and that she still had some connections to this reality.

Something snapped her away from her thoughts. It was a smell. A _delicious_ smell. It prompted her to get up and look into Touma's kitchen. The Imagine Breaker looked like he was enjoying himself a little bit. "Hey… what exactly… are you making?"

"Just some pasta, nothing special. Making a lot so I know I can have some leftovers for the next few days."

"Just plane old pasta doesn't smell THAT good you idiot…!" She was holding herself back; the smell was intoxicating.

"Does it smell that good…? I've never really paid any attention… guess I'm just used to it." Touma shrugged. Mikoto continued to watch Touma has he cooked, catching him glancing at her every now and then while doing so. Touma would quickly re-focus himself each time, feeling nervous being stared at like that. Around the time when the dish was done, when Touma was transferring the contents of the pot to a different container, Mikoto spoke up.

"How's… sleeping going to work?" Touma froze for a moment, before finishing transferring.

"You can have the bed. I'll make myself comfortable in the bathtub." He started to get plates and other eating utensils.

"Eh? Why the bathtub? Isn't that rough on your back…?" Mikoto asked.

"Yeah… but that's how it worked when Index was staying with me."

"She made you sleep in the bathtub!?"

"N-no… It was my idea... It didn't feel right taking the bed when I don't have a futon for her… I can't afford one honestly…" Touma set the things he was after off to the side, and began stirring the pasta, trying to cool it down and adding some additional spices at the same time.

"…You should have the bed. I'm smaller and would fit better if your bathtub is the only option." Mikoto said.

"No, you're the guest so you should get special treatment. Plus, you're the one in a bad spot at the moment; you should have some sort of comfort." Touma replied. Mikoto looked frustrated… and then a blush creped across her face as Touma was taking the pasta out into the open area and setting it down on his table.

"W-well… w-we both could sleep on the bed." Mikoto stuttered out, almost causing Touma to trip as he spun himself around, also blushing.

"W-why the hell would you suggest that!?"

"H-hey! You're always putting yourself on the line for me, s-so you should be comfortable s-since I'm dragging you into trouble a-again!" Mikoto shouted, pointing at Touma.

"B-but you're the guest who is in possible life-threatening trouble, so you should have some comfort to make you feel better!" Touma shouted, pointing back.

"S-so us sharing the b-bed is the only reasonable compromise!" Mikoto shouted back. They both hung there for a moment, not moving while staring at each other.

"…We will decide after we eat!"

"Agreed!"

**-Just Outside Touma's Apartment-**

"Oho~ looks like they are getting really friendly~" The man from before sat on top of a building just overlooking Touma's apartment. He was again talking on his cell phone.

"I told you to watch them, not to give me the play by play about their pointless antics…" The woman replied. "Can you give me your actual report, and not just random observations?"

"They met the spy and discussed what happened, we more than likely won't be able to do anything to him from now on without tipping certain people off…"

"…We won't have much of a choice, that man is too enter-twined in so many factions, we can't do anything about him without being caught; we will just have to be more careful…"

"As long as you didn't spill all your stuff all over town, I'm sure it will be fine!" The man smiled.

"I don't go around spilling things everywhere! And as you know, I'm in a very secure location! Stop being stupid!"

"Aww, come-on… just was trying to have a little fun…" The man frowned. "Is it alright if I play around a little bit with the Imagine Breaker?"

"Right now? Of course not!" The woman shouted. "Have some subtly!"

"Fine… stick to the plot; only disturb them while they are looking into things…" The man appeared disappointed.

"Good… remember, this is the first test of many, we need as much data as we can get to insure the outcome we want. Make sure we get it." The woman hung up abruptly. The man sighed closing his phone, hanging his head low, but then smiled.

"So you two are the main characters? I hope your good, because I'll be sure to make the first level nice and hard for you!"

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**Well... what'd ya think? I hope you enjoyed it~ R&R so i know how I did! See ya guys next time!**


	2. Dynamo

**Greetings everyone! Welcome to the second chapter!**

**I'd like to give a thank you to the reviewers I've had so far, and i'd also like to give a little shout-out to my good friend known simply as Zeus. He has been helping me with ideas, descriptions, and proof-reading! If you guys like this chapter, please give my friend Zeus a little thank you if you choose to review it. **

**That said... enjoy!**

* * *

The night was… eventful.

In an eager effort to finish dinner so she could force the boy she was staying with to go with her comprise-idea of sharing the bed rather than forcing one of the two to sleep in an uncomfortable piece of porcelain, Misaka Mikoto took a large bite of the meal that one Kamijou Touma had prepared for them both. She was unprepared for the absolute explosion of flavor, and upon tasting it; she momentarily lost control of herself… and moaned. Rather loudly in fact. She slapped her hand over her own mouth after quickly swallowing, blushing furiously at her sudden outburst, and took notice that Touma had stopped mid-bite, also looking a little red himself, staring back at her. The hung like that for a good 30 seconds before they continued their meal. It was at that point that apparently Touma decided to give-in to Mikoto's idea, purely for the sake of simplicity after such an awkward moment, and the two ended up sharing the bed, back to back (although not touching). Most of the night was full of awkward silence… and fidgets of them both trying to sleep with a partner in the same bed.

Morning seemingly forced itself into existence as Touma woke up. He was surprised he was even able to sleep, much less get a decent night of it. He quietly slipped out of bed, taking special care not to wake his guest, and sat at his table. It was about an hour or so later when Mikoto's eyes fluttered open, her mind recalling the vagueness of her dreams, and the events of the previous night.

"Good morning…" Touma greeted.

"G-good… morning." Mikoto stuttered. She sat up, still covered in blankets.

"I'll… go to the bathroom while you get dressed." Touma got up and walked into his bathroom, not wanting to offend his guest. Mikoto blushed, but took the opportunity. She dressed more casually, a slightly longer black skirt and a white frilly shirt. One upside to technically not being apart of her private school, she actually had a choice in wardrobe.

"You can come back… I'm dressed." Mikoto shouted. Touma opened up the door a little bit, taking a look around to see if the coast was clear before exiting. Many times he has walked in on girls undressing/redressing, and was determined to make sure such a thing happened in is own home.

"So… today we look into this memory phenomenon…" Touma started. "But first we should have breakfast… if we're going to be searching the city, we should properly eat for energy and all that business…"

"…Let me buy us breakfast."

"Eh? But I can cook-"

"I-I don't think I c-can handle a-another meal m-made by you at the m-moment…" Mikoto blushed in embarrassment, remembering the events of last night, while Touma slowly nodded. "P-plus… I can check whether or not I still have money to spend this way too…"

"Well… if you insist…"

**-Joseph's Restaurant-**

"So you still have money after all… that's good" Touma happily sighed. His money is as tight as ever, and he doubted he could pay for a meal. "This is a nice place too…"

"Yeah, I know. I come here often." Mikoto smiled a little, looking down. "Some of my friends showed it to me…"

"Sorry… I didn't mean to bring up that kind of stuff."

"It's fine… I was the one who picked the place after all." Mikoto looked up. "We should focus on the source of the problem anyway."

"Right." Touma leaned on the table. "I've been giving it some thought… any sort of spell gives off a strange sensation near its epicenter when its cast, so if Tsuchimikado didn't remember any sort of weird sensation after my right hand negated the memory effect, then it must have been cast far away… probably secluded. Any ideas for possible hideout locations?"

"There are a lot of places actually… there's an old abandoned military facility north of the school districts, but its guarded and patrolled regularly by Anti-Skill, no-one would be able to get in without setting off an alarm or getting caught on camera. There are also the labs I demolished during the Level 6 Shift project, if any of those buildings are still standing they would more than likely be vacant by now… and finally there are the numerous Skill-Out hang hangouts that have been cleared out over time." Mikoto leaned back, sipping some tea.

"Well… it narrows it down a little bit, better than running all across town… that military base is a no-go, can't go in there just on an assumption, we'd get arrested." Touma leaned back. "Only leaves the Skill-Out hang-outs and those labs… the easiest ones so search right from the get go would be Skill-Out, but those labs probably had all sorts of secret passages… but there are so many of both we couldn't cover all at once…"

"The gang hang-outs are rather clustered, very few outliers, while the labs are all over the place." Mikoto added. "We should at least get the easy ones out of the way first, so we can rule them out, if we even need too."

"Right… we can make it down to the district where they all are at and more or less just search all over."

"We'll split up and meet where we first arrive at every 30 minutes or so. We can give each other a call if we find anything or we get attacked."

"A few gang members are no big deal, but a full blown magician is a different story for both of us…" Touma sighed.

"Just remember to CALL ME if you get attacked by someone…" Mikoto sighed too. Touma smiled.

"You know, you're a good leader-type. I wouldn't be surprised if you had all this figured out already." Touma laughed lightly. Mikoto blushed and turned.

"I-I… you helped fill in some blanks…" Mikoto continued to look off. "After this though, I'm buying you a futon! No questions or excuses!"

**-School District Seven-**

"W-well… just a few thugs! No big deal, right?" Touma laughed nervously. He and Mikoto split up just outside this alleyway he was walking down, and after reaching the other side, Touma was immediately jumped by about six thugs. Taking them out wasn't hard, but it was time consuming, took him about 15 minutes to make sure none of them would come back after him. The alleyway exited to a street, Touma decided to follow it. The further down he walked, the less people he encountered, until he was completely alone in a street that should have been bustling with some form of life. An odd sensation filled the air; sound itself seemed to be non-existent.

"It is like this those times I met with Stiyl…" Touma murmured to himself, before the sound of metallic-footsteps from the other side of the street caught his attention. A man with straight light blue hair that went down to about his mid-back flowing out from his helmet was walking the opposite direction Touma was, but the peculiar part was what he was wearing. It looked akin to those mecha-suits from anime; he wore metallic boots that extended to below the white pads at his knees. His feet were encased by two armored sections of the boots, attached to them by circular white bolts in them. Up the rest of his legs and the other exposed parts of his body that his mechanical armor did not cover, such as his neck, forearms and midriff, he wore sturdy-looking black tights. At his waist he wore a white guard matching the rest of his armor, held by a golden belt that had what appeared to be a sword hilt, it was circular and red, with no blade in sight at his back. His chest was covered by a bulky dark blue plate with shoulder pads and a golden protector below his neck. His helmet was the same dark blue hue and had two extensions at each side, with green reflective material at the front of both, and a deep-red visor masking his eyes. His left hand was covered by a mechanical gauntlet, of dark blue armlet and white hand guard. His right hand, however, is what attracted attention the most and what Touma had his sight on since the beginning. It held a sight with a golden lining and seemed asymmetrical to his other arm, hinting at a firing ability or weapon. His body seemed lean aside from the robotics, giving the impression of agility. The only exposed part of the man was his face, which seemed to be smiling. He was a stark difference to the other people in district 7… what he was wearing was clearly military-grade hardware. From the science side of the world. Both Touma and the man continued to walk until they were across from each other, which is when the man spoke.

"Looking for something?" The man turned with a cheery-looking smile, the red visor slid up on its own revealing the man's blue eyes.

"…Kind of." Touma hesitantly replied. A formally busy street had become empty, and now he was being randomly spoken too from a mecha-suit wearing weirdo; something was not right.

"What exactly you looking for?" The man turned his body fully, placing his right hand's knuckles against his hip, letting his left dangle.

"…Something important. Why do you want to know?" Touma was eager to move along; this man was giving off a weird vibe. The man grinned.

"What's wrong? Isn't an NPC supposed to give valuable information to the main character?" The man chuckled lightly.

"…The hell are you talking about, guy?" Touma raised an eyebrow, confused. The man grinned wider.

"Well… I suppose you can doubt me, because I'm not exactly your every day NPC… far from it actually."

"Just who are you? And what do you want with me?" Touma's face turned serious.

"Who am I? What an interesting question… I haven't quite decided that yet, now have I?" The man looked up. "Ah… yes… let's see… Dynamo. Yeah, Dynamo. I was called that once I believe; it will do as a fine name for my character! As for why I'm here…." The man known as Dynamo lifted his right hand up, open-palmed, the palm facing the sky. "I'm here to disturb your search a little, that's all."

"…Disturb my search? What are you, hi-" A bright blue ball of energy formed in Dynamo's hand and he threw it at Touma, the blast of energy tearing through the air. In instinctive movement, Touma lifted up his own right arm, open palmed, and blocked the blast, a cracking sound, and then suddenly the blast vanished without a trace. Instead of looking confused, Dynamo smiled.

"Ah! The Imagine Breaker in action! So the rumor is true then!"

"Don't mess with me, you already knew about it." Touma looked on with a pained expression. Yet another random attack because of his right arm.

"Oh gee! Darn! I was hoping to keep the stealthy-ninja game play going! Looks like I've been found~" Dynamo laughed. "Don't mess me up too bad, Imagine Breaker, after all, I'm just here to disturb you."

"You… you're the one behind removing everyone's memory of Misaka, aren't you?" Touma clenched his right hand, forming a fist.

"Maybe I am, maybe I'm not. Hard to tell, really… I'm the kind of guy who can fit just about any roll. All I can tell you is that you're off, just a tiny bit. But you're still very, very close." Dynamo mocked.

"Enough! I'm sick and tired of your little game."

"Ah… but that's all this is… a game. The super-realistic MMO known as 'Life!' All these guys… espers… magicians… they're all just cheaters, hackers, people who used an exploit to level-up their avatars to godlike levels… Ah but you, you!" Dynamo pointed at Touma, grinning. "You're just like the big bad admin with your invincible ban hammer, the Imagine Breaker, who showed up to punish these hackers…"

"…If my right arm, is so invincible, why are you here…?" Touma's features tightened when another blue ball of energy formed in Dynamo's hand.

"Ah… but that's the fun part about this little game… even if the opponent is invincible, its still fun to try to beat them, isn't it?" Dynamo grinned.

Explosions followed shortly after.

**-Mikoto's location-**

She had just fried several thugs in a Skill-Out hangout. There were quite a few, so it was a prime place to check out; the person behind everything would surely need guards, right? But to no avail, no-one else was there, and no secret passages that she could find.

"That's one down…" Mikoto sighed, hoping that this would all be over.

An explosion rocked the ground she stood, even though it was a far distance away. The thought that crossed her mind first as she ran was simple.

Touma must have found something.

**-Windowless Building-**

"…The anomaly." A familiar man floating upside down in a tube spoke as his eyes slowly opened. This man is known as Aleister Crowley, the being in charge of Academy City. Not a single thing happens in this city that this man does not know about. "How interesting, one involved has met one that they cannot alter… The Imagine Breaker…"

"…One of?" Tsuchimikado asked. "There is more than one?"

"Perhaps… one caster… one guardian. Who is who though...? I'd rather not say." Aleister smiled.

"Why not…?"

"Because of how they are trying to accomplish their goal… it's rather interesting in its own right. I'm interested in whether or not they and successfully master that power… and how the Imagine Breaker will react to it… and I suppose there is some interest in the actions of the Railgun."

"And what will you do if this… 'Anomaly' rises up against you?"

"Not a possibility… I have everything under control. It's a perfect testing environment… besides; I'm sure the Imagine Breaker will be able to handle it with his little Railgun."

**-Touma's Location-**

"Come-on, Kamijou-san! I came all the way out here just to meet you! Don't play defensive all day!" Dynamo chuckled, giant blue blasts being fired from his right palm. Touma shifted over and over all over the street, dodging and blocking the blasts of energy, trying to move in closer; He can't attack from a distance. But each and every time it seemed like Touma was moving closer, Dynamo would aim four Touma's legs, forcing Touma to jump back. It was obvious: Dynamo was playing with him.

"I'm only playing defensive because you're too scared to come over for a real fight." Touma smirked. So did Dynamo.

"So… up the difficulty level? As you wish." Dynamo held out his open palm, and a pink ball of energy formed, and then shape-shifted into a sword, still looking like energy. Dynamo quickly leapt toward Touma at an angle; the suit Dynamo wore was clearly enhancing his physical ability. Dynamo swung the blade as Touma lifted up his right hand, the two connecting and the latter winning out; Touma's right hand negating the pink-energy blade. Touma tried to connect with a punch with his left, but Dynamo's foot touched the ground briefly and kicked, pushing himself back out of the way. A spinning assortment of multi-bladed blades formed in Dynamo's hand, and he threw it; followed by several more, some veering off course, others being dodged or negated by Touma's Imagine Breaker. Suddenly, the spinning blades paused in the air, and started fling back toward Dynamo at weird arcs. Touma was able to dodge them all except for the last one, which sneakily came from behind and nicked Touma's left shoulder, drawing blood and searing the skin. "Oops… looks like I scored a hit…" Dynamo laughed, but Touma suddenly lunged.

"If you think a tiny blow like that will take me down… then let me shatter that illusion of yours!" Touma decked Dynamo, knocking the mecha-suited man back. Dynamo flipped backward when hitting the ground, landing on his feet a fair distance from the Imagine Breaker.

"That right hand of yours… that's a good stuff." Dynamo rubbed his cheek, the mark from the blow being clearly visible. "It's been awhile since I've been even hit, let alone hit that hard… my jaw is aching bro!"

"Stop fooling around already… you know the stakes so stop treating this like a game!"

"Ah… but it is still all just a little piece of entertainment for me… you and that right arm… I wonder…" A large glowing energy formed around Dynamo's right hand. "Exactly… how much it can take…"

"If you think ordinary attacks will stop my right hand, you have another thing coming." Touma clenched his right hand into a fist. Dynamo slammed the energy into the ground.

"**Earth Gaizer!"** Touma looked onward, expecting a large attack, but saw nothing. Moments passed, but nothing seemed to be happening. The area started to appear brighter though… wait… Touma looked up as a barrage of lasers rained from the sky. Before Touma could react, several struck around him, and all down the street, causing explosions to envelop the entire section of pavement. The sounds only made Dynamo chuckle as smoke and dust from the onslaught bathed the area. Touma managed to take on the onslaught and still stand, but his Imagine Breaker did little to soften the effects of the explosions around him. The shockwaves from the blasts, the energy from the ones that were close enough, the sound of the constant bombardment. All of it was hitting Touma full force, and he found himself struggling to keep himself up. A sudden impact struck Touma's stomach, launching him down the street out of the dust-cloud, rolling, landing on his side. The metallic footsteps were barely auditable as Dynamo left the cloud as well; Touma's ears were still ringing.

"Well well… looks like I got the drop on you, Kamijou-san~" Dynamo laughed while Touma could just barely make out the words from Dynamo's lip movements. The ringing was slowly dying down, but not very fast.

"Don't… mess with me!" Touma suddenly forced himself to his feet and punched Dynamo again. The armored-man spun backward, but landed on his feet, looking up, appearing amused.

"Oh my… you ARE one tough little bastard, aren't you? Still able to fight back in your condition… that attack would have killed an ordinary guy… a group of people too but that's not the point!" Dynamo chuckled. Touma gritted his teeth. "But looks like the sneak critical I got puts you at a great disadvantage…" Dynamo formed a blade of energy in his hand and quickly lunged, but a sudden bolt of lightning raged across the ground, melting the asphalt where they stood, crating a fine-line between the Imagine Breaker and the armored man.

Quickly, Misaka Mikoto, without saying a word, rushed in-between them, cutting off the possibility of a second attack. She discharged a large burst of her electricity, while Dynamo held out his hand and a multi-bladed energy weapon formed once more, but this time it was spinning around rapidly. While this did protect him from the electrical discharge, Dynamo was forced backward, a fairly safe distance away from any kind of bladed-assault.

"So the party is all formed huh…? Well shit…" Dynamo cursed under his breath, but was still grinning.

"You: I don't know who the hell you are, but stay away from him!" Mikoto shouted, throwing her arms from her side's to emphasize her point.

"M-Misaka…?" Touma was surprised he was even able to speak himself, moving toward Mikoto's side, but not passing her.

"Ah! You miss-understand, Misaka-san! It may have looked like I was going to kill him, but I was not looking at any particularly fatal area~" Dynamo shrugged.

"…Know my name huh…? Giving yourself away like that is sloppy." Mikoto grinned, sparks flaring from her bangs.

"Maybe that's the whole point… It's not a fun story if there's no conflict! So, for the sake of spicing things up, I decided to get involved. You should be thanking me you know~" Dynamo laughed.

"Why should I be thanking you…? You're making my life a living hell you know!"

"Who said it was me? You're jumping to conclusions Railgun-san!" Dynamo laughed again. "But I digress... its time for little Dynamo to go home for the day; he's feeling rather tired."

"Like hell…" Mikoto seethed. "What? Scared and running away."

"Oh… one of you two alone isn't a big deal… but together, get outta here! I'm not interested in handicapping myself by participating in a two versus one!" Dynamo grinned.

"What are you after…?" Touma managed to speak. His body was aching all over.

"Didn't I say before, Kamijou-san…?" Dynamo held out his right hand. "I just want to disturb you…" Dynamo's hand aimed at an angle to the ground, and fired a blast of energy, kicking up another dust-cloud. Before Touma or Mikoto knew it, Dynamo was on top of a building to their right. "Stay alive you two so we can meet up again! See ya later!" Dynamo immediately ran out of sight, which wasn't hard considering where he was. Touma's body suddenly felt heavy, and as he fell forward, Mikoto caught him, holding him up.

"…We should get you to the hospital." Mikoto said, choosing not to say anything about the armor-clad man that had just retreated.

"With a guy able to pop in and out like him and that suit… that's probably a bad idea…" Touma replied. "Also… also I wanna see something before we talk about stuff like that…"

"S-see something… like what?"

"You'll see… you had friends that worked with Judgment, right?" Touma asked; holding his right hand up.

**-177th Judgment Office-**

"Attacked?" Uiharu Kazari, Judgment member, replied with this with a worried look on her face when she was informed of the assault in District Seven. Though entry was sudden and… eventful, due to the memory wipe, Mikoto and Touma found themselves in the 177th branch of Judgments' main HQ, with a temporarily cured Shirai Kuroko and Uiharu Kazari, courtesy of Touma's right hand, much to Kuroko's annoyance.

"Don't go off saying stuff like that when you dragged Onee-sama into one of your strange situations!" Kuroko suddenly shouted.

"It's not my fault! For the last time I didn't start this! Stop blaming me!" Touma, now bandaged up, shouted back. Somewhere along the line it seemed that he was given First Aid.

"Enough arguing! Let me explain!" Mikoto shouted. Thinking, she remembered that her friends have no associating with the magic side at all, so she had to change the facts around a bit. "An Esper used a telepathic ability to wipe the entire city of all memory of me, and while helping me look into it, this guy here was attacked by a man wearing a mecha-suit of armor."

"Ah… so you want to look into the Esper who wiped people's memory? It must be someone of a high level…" Kazari asked.

"No… we're looking into the guy who attacked me… we have no idea who is the one doing the memory wiping, but we know for a fact that the guy who attacked me is an esper, was throwing blasts of energy all over the street, and apparently attacked me in response to looking into the whole thing. We believe that the memory wipe and the esper in the suit are connected somehow." Touma replied.

"Onee-sama, why are you putting your faith in this mindless barbarian? Kuroko is here to serve you however you wish~ I can make these big bad espers go away~" Kuroko leapt toward Mikoto, but the latter sidestepped, causing the former to fall flat on her face.

"I-I couldn't because you didn't even know who I was!" Mikoto shouted.

"But I remember now~" Kuroko gently replied with a purr, making Mikoto shiver.

"The person who did the memory wipe can do it again… it's possible you may not remember her again after tonight, might not even remember our conversation…" Touma answered.

"Even so… I don't trust this ape of a man around you Onee-sama! Who knows what kinds of grotesque things go through his mind just upon seeing your radiant face!? They would surely get worse if working with you!" Kuroko replied almost as if Touma wasn't even there.

"…Shirai-san." Touma sighed. "I don't know what I did to make you despise me so much… but I'm sorry for any trouble I have caused you." Touma, being the thick-headed person he is, didn't notice that Kuroko's hatred for him was the affection Mikoto had for him. Despite this, however, Touma's apologetic words caught the level four teleporter's attention. "I know you don't like it, but I'm in a position where the memory phenomenon won't affect me, so I'm one of the few people who can help, and I'm more than happy to do so. So, please, let me help her however I can." The last wording made Mikoto's face turn a familiar shade of red.

"…Even if your life will be taken?" Kuroko questioned.

"If that is what will bring everything to normal and fix the problem, then yes." Touma simply replied like it was something he was used too. His response made Mikoto turn even redder.

"…If you have that kind of devotion to the cause… and considering your position, I have no choice but to accept you as Onee-sama's guardian for now then…" Kuroko sighed. Mikoto sighed in her mind; even if it was temporary, it made her happy to see that Kuroko wouldn't randomly drop-kick Touma like she normally does.

"So… this esper who attacked you… who is he?" Kazari asked.

"Well… he had blue eyes and light blue straight hair…" Touma focused. "Oh! He called himself 'Dynamo.' Do you think that can get us anything?" Kazari nodded and went to typing away at her multi-monitor computer. It wasn't long before the results were revealed.

"One Match. His name is blacked out, but his ability is called 'Dynamo.' Level four Plasma Caster…" Kazari trailed off reading. Though it was without any machinery, the face, eyes, and hair matched the description of the man that attacked Touma. In his photo ID, however, he appeared to be wearing a lab coat. "His last system scan was five years ago… he was 21 back then… worked on Project 'IMPULSE,' Revolved around research into mechanical exoskeletons to enhance human performance and reaction times. Project was completed successfully, but the prototype used for all their testing was stolen shortly after, and 'Dynamo,' went missing, and was assumed to be the culprit. Since the theft, Dynamo had not been witnessed again…"

"Until today. That mecha-suit he wore was probably that same prototype… it would explain why he was so strong and fast. But the attacks he hit me with weren't anything like a level four. Way too many blasts, way too much control, and way too much power." Touma replied.

"He must have been practicing, even while in the run. Five years of hard work and possibly education abroad could potentially lead him to increasing his power to a level five's caliber." Mikoto added.

"Even so… why would he suddenly return? And as the accomplice to deleting people's memories…" Kuroko questioned. "I could understand if it was memories of him, which would let him slip back into the city for another theft, or something worse, but Onee-sama has no connection to this man at all. What could possess him so assist in a plot to damage Onee-sama… and go as far to attack people just for looking into it…?"

"I don't know… the more we find out the more confusing it gets…" Touma sighed.

**-Outside Touma's Apartment Complex-**

"So that Dynamo guy was an esper after all… so there is no way he could of used magic…" Touma thought out loud. "Guess that means an esper and a magician are working together then… I have no idea how else it could be." They walked rather casually, stopping just in front of the building.

"Hey idiot… why didn't you call me when you were in trouble?" Mikoto asked. Touma shrugged.

"I didn't know I was in trouble till it had already started…" Touma replied. "He kept me on my toes… probably would have shot the phone out of my hand if I took it out." Touma flipped on his phone, just to make sure it hadn't been damaged in the fight. "That Dynamo… he knew about my Imagine Breaker right from the get go. And had already planned around it… it's like he knew I'd get involved and that he'd have to fight me."

"That's impossible… even if it is reasonable to predict that you'd get involved at some point, to assume that he actively knew that you'd meet and fight is too much." Mikoto shook her head. "That guy is too stupid to think that far ahead… he was acting like a child. To make attacks specifically with the intention of countering your right arm would require a lot of planning…"

"Oh well… he didn't hit anywhere fatal… just roughed me up all over." Touma said. They both went up the stairs to Touma's floor only to be stopped by Tsuchimikado.

"Kami-yan~ Got some information for ya, nya~" Tsuchimikado looked as calm and carefree as ever.

"Eh? So fast?"

"Are you doubting me now, Kami-yan?"

"No… just tell us what you found…" Touma sighed. Tsuchimikado turned serious for a moment.

"The hideout your after is not in District Seven, or any other skill-out gang locations; there are absolutely no magical-residue there." Tsuchimikado started. "But… there do seem to be several sources of magical power in the innermost-parts of the city."

"Experiment labs then…" Mikoto nodded. "Any idea which ones?"

"Any that's still standing. It's possible that they are switching from place to place daily to avoid getting caught. Such magical power would be sure to attract attention from other magicians, so being discrete and constantly moving would make sense…"Tsuchimikado pushed up his sunglasses. "Also… I've managed to confirm that there are two involved… a magician, who is casting the memory altering magic every night at the strike of 12:00, and an esper, seemingly acting like a body-guard."

"I've met the esper…" Touma pointed to his bandaged body. "The magician must be keeping out to avoid being caught."

"I got one last little tid-bit for ya… It seems the magic only affects people, electronic devices aren't affected. I did some hacking into the esper database and it was completely unaltered." Tsuchimikado leaned back. "Be sure to be careful around that esper though… he's a tricky one… don't take his outward stupidity seriously. He's got a plan…" Mikoto nodded, looking down toward Touma's end of the hall. Then she remembered something, something she was going to do today, that never ended up happening. Mikoto blushed red.

"Um… T-Touma…" Mikoto said slowly, catching the spiky-haired teen's attention. "W-we forgot… to get an extra futon…"

"…Such misfortune…"

**-177th Judgment Office-**

"Uiharu… are you still looking into that Dynamo character?" Kuroko yawned. The clock read 11:30pm; they had to work some overtime on some cases going on. So before heading home, Kazari decided to look into Dynamo a little more, while she still had memory of the whole situation.

"I may not remember tomorrow… but that guy can fix my memory, right? If I can find anything else useful it will help once we meet them again…" Kazari replied drowsily. She was in dire need to sleep.

"Well… if there's nothing left in the system databanks… try the internet? Maybe he made himself known in other countries… an ability and armor like his would make headlines if he did anything." Kuroko suggested. Kazari nodded, entering Dynamo's information into a search engine, the first link caught her attention by the article name.

"Scientist dies during lab experiment…?" Kazari read it out loud. She clicked on the link, but suddenly her speakers let out a horrible screeching noise and her webpage locked. What looked like a video popped up on Kazari's primary screen, showing a low-resolution shot of a man in a certain mecha-suit, first frowning, but suddenly began to grin with one hand on his hip.

"What in the…?" Kuroko questioned. Suddenly, one of Kazari's monitors exploded. Not violently, but enough to disable its use completely. And then another exploded. And another. They kept destroying themselves until the one with the video of Dynamo was all that remained.

"Ah ah ah…" Dynamo wagged is finger, as if disciplining a child. "Bad girl~" And finally, the last monitor exploded.

"W-what was that!?" Kazari shouted, frightened.

"I… I don't know… b-but that was that Dynamo person… right?" Kuroko replied, shook up. "J-just what does a fatality have to do with all of this…?"

* * *

**And there's the second chapter, I certainly hope you enjoyed it.**

**Now for a fun little game! The character "Dynamo" is actually heavily based on a character from a different series and shares the name! And it may not be another anime series either... I wonder how many people know where he's from? I can only wonder...**

**See you all next time!**


	3. Investigation

**Why hello there my beautiful people! I am here to welcome you to Chapter 3! Updates my so -slightly- because of a new job... but I will still try my best to bring you quality works! Enjoy yourself's people; I made it for you after all!**

* * *

It's been a long week.

Starting with a massive memory altering spell though, it'd be something you'd expect. And to make it worse, a mecha-suit wearing esper has been making a constant nuisance. Just two days after his arrival, he struck again, destroying a computer that may have had useful information on it. The man threw a few blasts of plasma as a cover and left shortly after. The very next day, he had apparently paid off a gang of thugs to try and attack the duo. It didn't work, naturally, but they had to get away quickly before Anti-Skill showed up. After all, one of the two doesn't technically exist, so she'd obviously get thrown in jail as an illegal. The day after that, they went to another facility, only to find it booby-trapped with all kinds of sharp objects, bear traps, pitfalls, only to find a note with the man's face chibi drawn with a smile saying 'Sorry, nothing here!' for their efforts.

And to top it all off, yesterday, they had gone to a facility close to an Anti-Skill barracks, making it hard to get into to begin with. They did find something useful, though, a diary with dates detailing the past few days, back to when this whole mess started. However… it was booby-trapped. With a time bomb that activated. They were well out of the kill-zone, but Kamijou Touma was kicked into a wall by a suddenly appearing Dynamo, preventing the Imagine Breaker from getting away scot-free. The explosion cut up Touma quite a bit, and the force caused some bruising. Nothing fatal however; Dynamo was keeping to his word, only being a distraction, and never seeking for the kill; he very easily could have with that bomb. Dynamo used the explosion to escape, leaving Mikoto to carry Touma back to his dorm. It is now close to 12:00pm, the day after that incident.

"No way are you coming this time. I can handle it myself for a day," Mikoto sternly said.

"What are you talking about?" Touma replied.

"I mean, I can take care of things this time… your still hurt from that bomb." Mikoto answered.

"I'm still capable of moving…" Touma replied.

"But you probably can't fight… you know that Dynamo is gunning for you each time we go together… let me handle this along so you can properly rest," Mikoto said.

"I just don't want something to happen to you," Touma replied. A blush formed on Mikoto's face, but she quickly shook it off.

"Don't worry about it. I can handle myself…" Mikoto trailed off a bit; looking over Touma's bandaged body. "Besides... you've been taking all these hits for me, right? Your body can only handle so much before it'll break… please stay behind today and get better." Mikoto looked off out Touma's window.

"…If you were worried about me, you could of just said so. No need for the over-the-top explanation," Touma replied. Mikoto blushed red, and fired off a bolt of electricity, only to have it negated. "Fine… just… be careful, ok? I don't want you ending up looking like a mummy like me."

"D-don't worry about it… I'll be fine… just stay home and rest." Mikoto went for the door and opened it. She looked back toward Touma for a moment, as if contemplating something, but closed her eyes and walked out, waving goodbye as she did. Touma waved back, and sighed when his door closed. His eyes wandered toward the diary they found. Perhaps even if bed-ridden, he can be useful after all.

**-Lab Number 8926, Genetic Research-**

"This is where they studied my sisters after their cloning…" Mikoto said to herself, walking down the metallic halls. Even though it was damaged and abandoned, electricity was still flowing; several of the emergency lights were still on. The hall opened up into a wider multi-levelled area, several desks were thrown out into the area, jumbled. The evacuation must have been hasty after her attack on it. The light tapping of metal against metal was coming from the second level of the room. Mikoto looked up to see Dynamo, leaning against a railing, tapping his foot… humming to himself, and eating an apple. His back was turned, and Mikoto was being sure to make no sound; Dynamo had no idea he had been found. He took a bite, Mikoto decided to sneak in closer. If she could get close enough, she could zap him with enough force that it'd knock him out and he wouldn't be able to dodge it. During her sneak, however, Mikoto accidentally stubbed her toe against one the tables with enough force to move it; she contained her anger, but Dynamo heard the sound, and looked over his shoulder; his red visor was slid up into his helmet, revealing his eyes.

"…Hi?" Dynamo said in a confused tone.

"Hi…" Mikoto said back, but then shook her head furiously. "Wait; don't go greeting me like you didn't know I was coming!"

"…But I didn't?" Dynamo defended. "Weren't you guys going to be hitting the 1313 lab today?"

"…No? We've been picking at mostly random…" Mikoto replied. "…You've been able to predict which labs we were going to so far?"

"…Kind of. I've been using my intuition mostly." Dynamo scratched his chin. Mikoto looked confused.

'Wait… Touma has been the one who picked… which means…' Mikoto let out a heavy sigh after processing her thought; Touma and Dynamo were picking the exact same labs to go to at a pure coincidence. "What are you doing here then, Dynamo?"

"…Eating an apple," Dynamo replied, taking a bite.

"Don't mess with me you dirt bag, what are you actually up to?" Mikoto demanded.

"…I'm eating an apple. I seriously had no intention of fucking with you guys today." Dynamo replied, receiving a skeptical look in response. "What? Is it so hard to believe that I simply wanted to give you guys a freebie?"

"Since you've been spending most of your time trying to kill us, excuse me if I think you're full of shit." Mikoto was getting fed-up with Dynamo's laid back and innocent attitude.

"Well, believe whatever you want then, I thought you two would be heading to the 1313, and I'm over here, so use your brain." Dynamo replied. "Besides… I'm not trying to kill you, I'm just disturbing you. The game is no fun if it's easy, you know." He turned around, leaning forward on the railing, supporting himself with his arms.

"Why do you keep thinking that this is all just a game…!?" Mikoto shouted, sparks flying off her bangs.

"It really is if you think about it… you, me. We're just players. If it wasn't me you were fighting, it would be someone else. Another random encounter designed just to make you mad that you can grow as a person from." Dynamo replied with a slight grin.

"…Why are you doing this to me?" Mikoto asked; a hint of sadness in her voice. Dynamo sighed.

"Wasn't my choice, and wasn't my doing, I'm just the helper in all this." The mecha-man replied. "I didn't want to do it to you… hell; I didn't even want to do it here in Academy City. But she insisted on both, so I don't have much of a choice but to follow along. As for why; I don't have the foggiest clue."

"She…? The magician?" Mikoto asked. "So it's a woman then… but why are you playing along then? If you don't want to do it, then don't!"

"It is not that simple, Misaka-san~" Dynamo playfully replied. "I have given milady my word, and my pride as a man cannot let me disappoint a woman that has such hopes in me to complete my tasks, even if the local and the target are not to my liking."

"Pride as a man…? You're a thief, a liar, and a terrorist as best, why limit yourself by your pride?"

"Because my pride is my last connection to this world you see~" Dynamo replied. "That project I worked on… the ones funding it, the ones working on it, the testing practices… the fatalities… darkness emanated from every corner of it… and I helped it. Let's just say that after it was over I had enough of this city's darkness." Dynamo replied. "But… I shouldn't have to describe this city's dark side to someone like you, would I… little miss original?"

"You know… how!?" Mikoto's furious look returned.

"I found a few working computers… read into the details, wasn't hard to fill in the blanks." Dynamo replied. "You got tricked into it all too huh? That's what made me really not wanna put you through all of this… but milady's word is my command. For what it's worth, I apologize for what I've done and what I may do in the future."

"Claiming it was just following orders doesn't justify your actions you bastard!"

"Justification isn't something I'm after…" Dynamo replied, fully standing. "Now… how is this going to go down from here? Are you going to shoot me from down there…? Or do I shoot you from up here…? Or do we just go our separate ways, acting like we didn't have this secret rendezvous?" The question went unanswered, as a door flung open to Dynamo's right, and a hailstorm of bullets flew. The mecha-man jumped back dodging the barrage, and fired a blast to his left, making a rather large hole, quickly jumping into it and running away, just like so many times before. The figure that had opened fire so suddenly stepped out into the open… and she looked exactly like Mikoto, except she was wearing a pair of goggles and holding a large calibre assault rifle.

"A sister…?" Mikoto asked in shock.

"Onee-sama?" The clone replied in the clone's typical monotone voice. "What are you doing here; Misaka asks in confusion."

"T-that is what I was going to ask you!" Mikoto replied.

"The network has detected numerous anomalies within the city for several days, and Misaka has deduced the man Misaka has shot at is somehow connected; Misaka answers carefully. Also, Misaka had hacked the local surveillance system and saw the man fighting with the savior; Misaka says adding additional information for Onee-sama."

"…So your real reason is that he attacked that idiot… makes sense, but does that mean that the Misaka network isn't affected by the memory alteration either?" Mikoto asked.

"Misaka does not know; Misaka answers truthfully. The memories of the other Misaka clones are constantly broadcasted to the entire network once every three seconds, so even if Misaka's memories are altered, they will quickly be corrected and the changes will be flagged as fakes and deleted due to the overwhelming number of the other correct memories; Misaka says supplying more information to help Onee-sama understand the network."

"But is it just you here?"

"No, all ten of the Misaka clones that are in Academy City are occupying this facility at the moment; Misaka replies reloading her weapon. All exits are being covered except the pathway to the roof, which is more than likely where the man will flee to try and escape; Misaka muses openly."

"Alright… hey, I think I can make us a shortcut to the roof if you think we can climb up a little bit." Mikoto pulled out a small arcade coin, holding it up. The Misaka clone nodded in agreement.

**-Roof Level-**

"Maaaan… that was a shaker; it's been while since I've been openly shot at, damn." Dynamo broke down the locked door on the roof with a powerful kick. Looking around, most of the buildings were rather far away or low, so jumping from roof-top to roof-top without being noticed was out of the question. "Maybe I should double back to a lower level and break a window to jump out from… or could I land in the back alley without someone seeing me? Decisions decisions…" His thought went unfinished, as what looked like a bright orange laser burst from the floors below at an angle, the rumble from the blast making movement difficult.

"Aw, what the hell now!?" Dynamo said, going down to his knees for balance, waiting for the shockwave to die down.

Dynamo didn't get much recovering time, as gunfire quickly burst from the new hole; Dynamo crated his multi-bladed weapon with his Plasma Caster ability and spun it around quickly to block the barrage. A bolt of lightning grinded across the ground after the bullets, forcing Dynamo to dodge, moving himself not only away from the door back downstairs, but also away from his rear-exit.

"No chance for escape," Mikoto said with a smirk, pulling herself up, the Misaka clone following suit.

"Can't we just be friends?" Dynamo asked jokingly.

"You've been a part of making my life hell for the past few days… so I'll let you answer that yourself." Mikoto replied, sparks flying from her bangs.

"…So sleeping in the same bed at the guy you wanna jump is bad then?" Dynamo cocked his head to the side, appearing confused.

"…Onee-sama." The Misaka clone turned her head, with the closest possible look to a glare she could give.

"W-what the hell does 'wanna jump,' mean!? And don't take things the wrong way, we haven't done anything yet!" Mikoto relied first to Dynamo, then Misaka, pointing at both.

"…Yet?" Dynamo and the Misaka clone asked in unison.

"S-shut up! D-don't gang up on me like this!" Mikoto fired off a bolt of electricity at Dynamo, who replied with his own blast of Plasma energy, the two attacks cancelling each other out.

"Temper, temper… Touma probably isn't interested in hot-headed violent girls, ya know~" Dynamo laughed.

"**I SAID SHUT UP!"** Mikoto focused a large quantity of electrical energy into a stream of power, launching the wave at Dynamo in anger. The mecha-suited man in question retaliated with a focused blast of plasma energy, the two waves meeting just in-between them both, raging for several moments, before subsiding.

"…So our powers work against each other, eh? My plasma blocks your electricity, and vice-versa… I'm not quite sure if that's how it's supposed to work; I never read anything like that in the instruction booklet." Dynamo shrugged.

"Just what the hell are you talking about? What instruction booklet!? I never saw one!" Mikoto shouted.

"…So this game's used then? Makes sense, it feels like I've been touched all over by someone else~ I can only hope it was a cute girl…"

"Make sense damn it!" Mikoto unleashed another bolt of electricity; Dynamo dodged this time. The Misaka clone opened fire again on Dynamo, who blocked it like before, running down the roof, stopping near the edge.

"Sorry girls~ I wouldn't mind a three-way, but I really must be going, my life is at stake!" Dynamo smiled.

"Oh no you don't!" Mikoto pulled out a small arcade coin and flipped it into the air.

"Oh shit…!" Dynamo leapt over the railing just as Mikoto fired her Railgun, the blast nicking and frying the lower section of Dynamo's back, the part that was covered by his black under-armor. Dynamo landed on his feet, but twitched in pain for a moment from the attack, before running down the alley into the open street, making his escape. Mikoto ran over to the ledge and saw that the Plasma-Caster had left already, and mentally cursed with a sigh.

"We probably can't chase him in open public… can we?" Mikoto asked.

"That course of action would lead to public involvement; Misaka answers. By the way, Misaka is Misaka 10032; Misaka says while hiding how hurt Misaka is that you forgot the Misaka that was saved by the savior."

"Sorry!" Mikoto quickly apologized. "I-it's just that you all look the same and…"

"Misaka has been doing her best to make herself different; Misaka says is disappointment in finding that Misaka's efforts have failed."

"H-hey! C-cheer up!" Mikoto said nervously. "L-like that ass of a man said… I've been staying with Touma… i-if you want, I can bring you back with me for a visit?" Mikoto asked nervously.

"…Misaka accepts your apology; Misaka says trying to express gratitude."

**-Touma's apartment-**

"Misaka has never been in the savior's room before; Misaka says in wonder."

"…What's with everyone thinking that everything I cook and own is amazing…? It's all just normal…" Touma sighed.

"The room isn't special, but your cooking is a completely different story! Be honest about how you feel!" Mikoto shouted, frustrated that Touma could look down upon his own cooking.

"Onee-sama is the last person who should make such a statement; Misaka says pointing out Onee-sama's ironic statement." Mikoto blushed immediately after. Touma sighed.

"So… you guys were attacked by Dynamo again…?" Touma asked.

"No, we attacked him." Mikoto replied. "He thought we were going to a completely different building, so we got the jump on him. I think I only injured his back though…"

"I see… find anything useful?"

"The magician is a woman, and Dynamo is quite familiar with her… and probably knows where she is. If we can take him down and capture him, we can force him to tell us." Mikoto stretched a bit.

"Would make sense, but since its Dynamo, I can't help but think that it's his way of throwing us off… like making us go after him and it turning out he doesn't know anything." Touma leaned back against the wall.

"But it's the only possible option at this current point in time; Misaka comments."

"Good point… that guy is making us seeking him out our only option… such misfortune." Touma scratched his head. "Oh… by the way, you should thumb through the diary we found, it belongs to that magician."

"Why don't you just give us the short version?" Mikoto asked.

"Because it'd be better if you saw it with your own eyes…" Touma answered with a serious tone, picking up the light book and handing it to Mikoto. She began to thumb through it before stopping on a random page, her face's features turning to dread.

"This… this is…!"

**-Dynamo's location-**

"Damn it… This stings!" Dynamo shouted in pain, trying to treat his own wound. His cell began to ring, and he quickly answered. "Hello~"

"Dynamo." A woman's voice answered. "What are you doing at the moment?"

"Patching myself up… what's up? You normally don't call me without a hint of rage unless it's important."

"I'm starting to think yelling at you is part of one of your sick and twisted fetishes, so I'm not going shout…"

"…What sick and twisted fetishes? You're thinking of things just to insult me, aren't you?"

"Maybe~" The woman replied in a joyous tone. "I am sending a letter to set-up a distraction for the Imagine Breaker and the Railgun for you…"

"To who?"

"It's a surprise."

"You know I hate surprises!"

"You're right, I do know."

"…Not funny…" Dynamo sighed, the pain in his back finally dying down.

"In the mean-time… I'd like you to take a look into this 'Misaka network.' Anyone who can cancel out my memory manipulation is a problem… so as many of the ones that are non-essential we can eliminate; the better." The woman explained.

"…Sounds fun. Send me the target info and I'll make them vanish like they never existed~" Dynamo smirked. "Besides… speeding up the process a little won't hurt~ just don't lose your nerve!"

"I want that mission accomplished ASAP! Now get to work!"

* * *

**I'd like to give a shout-out to someone who volunteered to beta-read for me, PokeRescue18. Have two guys on the job to catch errors and make sure everything runs smoothly makes entertaining you all so much better and funner! Have a good day now everyone!**


	4. Network

**And here we are yet again folks! Another chapter for your entertainment! Once again, thanks to Zeus and PokeRescue18 for proof-reading my works. Enjoy!**

* * *

"What… does this mean… editing of reality? Forcefully remove all undesired things?" Mikoto's face displayed not only confusion, but fear. The particular page detailed what could be assumed the magician's plot; to use a powerful spell from a Grimoire to eliminate beings that she deemed evil or unnecessary, and detailing how using a weaker version of the spell as a way to understand and study it and see how far they can push it.

"If… I had to guess…" Touma started. "The weaker version is what's causing the memory phenomenon… and it doesn't affect electronics because it just changes memory of living beings… while the full spell with warp reality as a whole."

"S-so… if the magician tried to test the real thing… I'd…"

"Don't think about that." Touma said. "She won't get a chance to use it. Don't worry Misaka; I'll make sure nothing happens to you." Misaka flushed red, and looked away.

"D-don't try and sound cool…"

"Who says I'm trying to sound cool, biri-biri? I'm serious. I'll protect you." Touma looked serious, but spoke like it was something normal to him to say. This made Mikoto turn an even darker shade of red, and ignore the nick-name she hated so much.

"I-I… I'm gonna get some air!" Mikoto suddenly shouted and dashed for the door, leaving a dumbfounded Touma, and an as-usual emotionless Misaka 10032.

"I'm starting to wonder if something is legitimately wrong with her mind…" Touma sighed as Misaka 10032 stood up.

"Don't worry, Misaka will make sure Onee-sama is ok; Misaka says while stretching from sitting."

"Eh? Alright… I'll start dinner then… are you going to stay for dinner?" Touma stood up too.

"…M-Misaka would like to; Misaka says trying to express joy." Touma nodded in response, and then Misaka 10032 opened the door and stepped out, seeing Mikoto leaning on the railing. She sighed, and stood up straight, looking toward the street.

"…What's wrong with me? When he says stuff like that… just… ugh." Mikoto turned a light shade of red.

"Onee-sama should be honest about her feelings; Misaka says trying to be supportive." Mikoto quickly turned toward her sister in surprise.

"W-what feelings!? What are you-?" Misaka 10032 quickly covered Mikoto's mouth, pointing back toward Touma's front door. Mikoto looked confused but caught on quickly. "W-what are you talking about, anyway…?" She talked quietly; trying to make sure no-one could over-hear their conversation.

"Your obvious feelings for the savior, Misaka says trying to keep quiet so Misaka cannot be heard."

"I-I don't know what you're talking about… I-I don't l-l-like him or anything!" Mikoto spoke in a higher pitch, but kept her voice down.

"Then why do you turn so red when he is around? Why do you suddenly start stuttering as well; Misaka asks out of curiosity."

"B-because… because… I-I don't know, ok!?"

"Then would you object to the Misaka Network claiming him; Misaka asks."

"…What?"

"Would you object to the Misaka Network claiming the savior; Misaka repeats her question."

"…Yes… I would object to that." Mikoto was looking down.

"Why; Misaka asks in contemplation."

"B-because… because…" Mikoto clenched her hand into a fist tightly. She shut her eyes too, as if fighting something. She was fighting herself. She opened her eyes and released her grip, and sighed. "…Because I am in love with him, alright? The way he acts… what he does for me, even without me asking first… m-my heart just can't handle it…" Mikoto put her hand to her chest, but looked up with a suspicious look. "Wait… you like him too, right? Why are you talking to me about this?"

"All sorts of things can happen in life… this conversation may not matter at all depending on the outcome of your emotions even if you pursue them; Misaka replies, checking to make sure no-one is listening in."

"…That didn't answer my question as for why you're… helping me…" Mikoto gave a dull look. Misaka 10032 looked serious for a moment.

"Without Onee-sama, Misaka and the other sisters wouldn't exist, and on top of that, if Onee-sama didn't come into contact with the Savior to begin with, the Savior more than likely wouldn't have stepped in to fight Accelerator; Misaka explains. If it wasn't for Onee-sama, Misaka and the other sisters not only would not exist, but we would more than likely all would have been eliminated during the Level 6 Shift experiment, so Onee-sama deserves at least her own chance to be with the Savior; Misaka finishes, making her true feelings known." Mikoto was stunned, to put it lightly. Not only being pressed into admitting her true emotions for Touma, but the reasons behind it left her speechless… and made her feel somewhat selfish for saying no earlier.

"…But the moment he is available afterward, the Misaka Network will pounce on the Savior and never release him to any other girl or similar entity; Misaka says as a warning."

And that feeling of selfishness vanished. Just like that.

"Y-you girls are relentless…" Mikoto sighed, and then blushed again. "Do…do you even think I s-stand a chance with…. H-him?"

"Onee-sama is in the perfect position to leave an impression; Misaka says in wonder." Misaka 10032 put a finger to her chin in thought. "Misaka thinks that doing kind things for the Savior may be a way to secure his attention, as it is something he himself does; the effect of seeing someone else willing to do for others what he does may work… I'd suggest physical seduction but considering Onee-sama's body, results are hard to predict, so appealing to his kind-side would be best, Misaka thinks."

"W-what do you mean my 'body?' I-I'm still growing! I…I might even have gone up a size… it feels a bit tight sometimes…" Mikoto replied, pointing to her chest, speaking as if she was thinking out-loud.

"Misaka would like to inspect to see if Onee-sama's claim is true; Misaka says approaching with her hands ready."

"H-hey! No way! S-stay back!" A loud knock came from Touma's door.

"If you two are done talking about whatever, dinner is ready." Touma said from inside his apartment. Both Mikoto and Misaka 10032 exchanged glances, nodding briefly, and then re-entering Touma's apartment. Apparently Touma had just decided to cook up some hamburgers. Sitting at Touma's table, Misaka 10032 was about to take a bite, but Mikoto stopped her.

"Be careful… Touma's cooking… makes you 'feel' things…" The Railgun warned, prompting a small blush with 10032 when she understood what her Onee-sama meant.

"…Is my cooking really THAT good?" Touma asked.

"Y-yes… yes it is." Mikoto answered, eyeing her own hamburger. "If I'm not ready… I'll… do THAT again…" Mikoto blushed, and so did Touma, who was remembering what happened around the time this whole mess started. The Imagine Breaker could only nod in response, while thinking he was just average; finding it weird that he actually did have something he excelled at. Strange perk to poverty, he guessed. Misaka 10032 was about to take a bite, but abruptly stopped, placing the hamburger back down and getting up.

"Not feeling hungry?" Touma asked after taking a bite himself.

"It's not that, Misaka will have to eat on the way; Misaka says collecting her things."

"Why?" Touma looked confused; until he saw Misaka 10032 take out her assault rifle.

"That man has appeared again; Misaka answers."

**-Hospital District-**

Another Misaka clone, known as Misaka 10901, was going on a simple leisurely walk outside of the hospital grounds, when she began to notice odd sounds from behind, and also strange things shifting in the shadows. It wasn't long before she came to a stop, turning around, and putting a hand into the large bag she was carrying.

"Come out; Misaka demands."

"Ah… did I get found out already?" A man in a familiar mecha-suit of armor stepped out from the alleyway. "I was actually trying to be stealthy this time…"

"Why are you following Misaka?"

"Oh… nothing special… I'm just here to investigate your little network." Dynamo smiled. "Someone like you and your clone army seems to be a bit of a problem, understand?"

"So you are here to attack Misaka; Misaka says with understanding. Misaka hopes you don't link that Misaka will give up without a fight; Misaka warns drawing her weapon of choice." She draws out a rifle, fully automatic. Dynamo grinned.

"Quite the contrary; that's what I was hoping for~"

**-A Certain Apartment-**

"What is it now, brat?" A boy of about 15 with white hair said. He was lying down on a couch, eyes closed. His skin was also rather pale.

"One of us is being attacked, Misaka Misaka says with concern." A little girl that looked about ten with short brown hair, one particular sticking out at an angle replied in a cute voice.

"So what? They're trained; they can handle themselves…" The boy replied. The girl puffed up a bit in frustration, and jumped onto the boy's stomach.

"But she's in trouble! That bad guy the other sisters were talking about is attacking them, Misaka Misaka says trying to convince you!"

"That guy is only tormenting the original; like I give a shit about that bitch!" The boy said roughly, opening his red eyes.

"Come on! If something bad happens… Misaka Misaka tails off with a concerned tone." The girl looked down, looking depressed. The boy eyed the girl on top of him, and sighed.

"Tch… off. Now." The girl abruptly rolled off as the boy stood up, and grabbed a cane next to the couch.

"Eh? Where are you going, Misaka Misaka asks while you're walking away from Misaka!" The boy didn't turn around, and instead flipped the switch on a little black box on his collar.

"Relax, brat. I'll handle it."

**-Academy City Streets-**

"So the hospital district, right?" Touma asked.

"Yes." Misaka 10032 replied.

"What's what… five blocks away? Can we even make it there in time?" Mikoto said.

"Time shouldn't be a variable… Misaka replies. The administrator has already taken care of securing Misaka 10903."

"Then why are we running?" Mikoto looked annoyed.

"To secure the end of the predicament Onee-sama is in, the one you call 'Dynamo,' must be alive, Misaka answers with a serious look."

"…So we really need to make it there fast then." Touma said.

"But why?" Mikoto still looked confused.

"To make sure our one lead to the caster of the spell is still alive."

**-Hospital District-**

Misaka 10901 was running. Keeping her distance from her opponent seemed like the best option. She would occasionally turn around to fire her weapon; mostly to keep the pressure on her armored pursuer. Dynamo could block all the bullets with his spinning blade, but a moment of hesitation would lead him to being gunned-down; his armor only protects him from so much; and the girl he was chasing was clearly using armor-piercing rounds. On one of their exchanges down the street, a bullet cut part of Dynamo's upper-thigh, slicing through the cloth and the skin.

"Ya know… this game of cat and mouse is starting to piss me off…" Dynamo fired off a blast of plasma at Misaka 10903's feet, the resulting explosion knocking the clone to the ground. She rolled on the ground, getting up to her knee before her assailant fired another blast just above her, forcing her to stay down. "No more running, no more dodging, no more chasing… this ends now." A large blast of plasma enveloped Dynamo's hand. What should have happened is that the blast should have made contact, exploded, and if his target was alive, he would take her in and use her as a possible hostage. If not; he tracks another one down, and tries it again. But neither of those options would apply during this situation, it would seem.

A large steel object flew through the air, smashing right into Dynamo's side, forcing the blast he was about to throw to vanish. The mecha-esper rolled along the ground after the impact; Misaka 10901 stood up. She looked emotionless like usual, but seemed… unconcerned, even though she was just attacked.

"Oh shit…" Dynamo groaned, pushing himself up to his feet, looking up, and saw an albino boy with white hair walking forward on a cane. "Oh shit!"

"What's that? Sounded like you were talking shit just a second ago."

"…Well, if it isn't Accelerator, to what do I owe the pleasure?" Dynamo said with a smile; climbing to his feet.

"Saw someone attacking a bitch. Thought it was bullshit. Then I chucked that car door at you. Nothing more, nothing less." Accelerator replied roughly; still approaching. Dynamo continued to grin, but his brain had a different story to tell.

'Fucking hell! Why the hell is HE here!? Why is the fucking number one here…!?' Dynamo began to sweat. 'Plasma Caster won't work on this guy… and my strength doesn't matter… I should probably…'

"You're not getting away." Accelerator grinned tapped the ground with his foot, and was suddenly launched toward Dynamo. It was too fast; the only response Dynamo could give was to fire off a blast of Plasma. It made contact with Accelerator, but was immediately shot back toward Dynamo. The mecha-esper just barely dodged the blast; Accelerator passed him, and suddenly stopped, grabbing Dynamo's left arm, and with a sickening twist, broke it at the shoulder. The force also caused the armored part of Dynamo's forearm to shatter, and he could only howl in pain at the sudden injury. Accelerator wasn't done, however, and socked Dynamo in the face, which ended up launching him into a concrete wall, imbedding him inside it. He fell forward, and caught himself, supporting himself up with just his right arm; his left was useless at the moment.

"Yeah... like I thought… fucking Vector Change! Overpowered piece of shit…" Dynamo pushed himself up to one knee.

"What's that? I couldn't hear you over the sound of you screaming." Accelerator replied, grinning.

"Don't go talking like you've already reduced my HP to zero…" Dynamo grinned back, a nervous sweat covering his face.

"Don't worry; that's a problem I'll fix personally." Accelerator grinned wider; and started to walk forward. Dynamo made a blade of pink-colored Plasma to defend himself with. It wouldn't matter though; Accelerator's Vector Change could stop it anyway; the weapon was almost like a formality, something to go down fighting with. The albino esper stood over the mecha-esper just as someone walked onto the scene.

"Wait! Stop!" Touma shouted, running full speed toward. "Don't kill him!"

"…Fucking hero?" Accelerator's head twisted, almost un-naturally, toward Touma. The albino already looked pissed. Dynamo grinned.

"Looks like the running away option presented itself again. Bye!" Dynamo dispelled his blade and instead fired off a plasma blast toward the ground in-between him and Accelerator. The explosion did nothing to Accelerator, but where Dynamo was before there was just a hole in the pavement.

"Tch! look what you fucking did." Accelerator popped his neck. "Fucker got away!"

"Better than having you kill him…" Touma sighed. Mikoto and Misaka 10032 followed in shortly after. "He knows where the person behind the memory phenomena is… plus if he were to die, the one behind all of this might step up their plans."

"…Right. That." Accelerator went to grab his cane. "Well, you shouldn't have to worry about that fucker for a while then. So go searching to your heart's content. Broke his fucking arm, so I doubt he'll fuck with you for a while." Accelerator grabbed his cane, supporting himself on it, and Looked over the two Misaka clones. They both looked fine, even Misaka 10901, who just more or less got mugged in the middle of the street. He glanced over toward Mikoto, only receiving an odd look in response. Yeah, those two still wouldn't get along, no matter what. But Mikoto was at least grateful for protecting one of her sisters; which is why Mikoto wasn't upfront glaring at him. Accelerator let out a huff, and flicked the switch on his collar off.

"Hey, where are you going?" Touma asked. Accelerator looked back for a moment.

"…Home? Where the fuck do you think I'm going?" Accelerator replied. "I don't want anything to do with whatever shit you're dealing with… besides; a certain someone might get pissy." He glanced over at Mikoto, for whom the comment was obviously aimed at.

"Well… hey, if I do ask you to help sometime… could you lend me a hand?" Touma asked.

"Sure, fine, what the fuck ever… I actually owe you one now that I think about it, so it'd be a good excuse to square shit up between us. Can I go now?" Accelerator shouted, obviously fed up with the whole situation. If it wasn't for how Touma did lend a hand in helping Last Order some time ago, Accelerator would have told the Imagine Breaker to piss off. Accelerator didn't like owing people; this would just be a way to make things even. After a few moments, Accelerator was gone.

"…Do you think we can trust him?" Mikoto asked, wary of the number-one esper, for obvious reasons. Touma nodded.

"Yeah… he's a lot nicer then he lets on… besides; your sisters obviously trust him, and that's good enough for me." He replied. Mikoto still didn't trust him, but it seemed that Touma's approval was good enough for her. "Come on. Let's get those two into the hospital, make sure no-one's hurt."

"…You got into a strange situation again, didn't you, Touma?" A voice said from behind Touma. It sounded adorable in nature, but the tone was a dark, threatening one. Touma instantly remembered who it belonged too, and turned around nervously.

"H-hey Index… L-long time no see! D-did you enjoy your trip?" Was all Touma could manage to say.

Chomp.

"SUCH MISFORTUNE!" Touma shouted at the top of his lungs as a little nun-in-training bit down hard on the misfortunate boy's head while his current companions looked onward at the scene happening before them.

**-Undisclosed Location-**

"Damn… that hurts…" Dynamo walked through a metal hall-way. Lights were dim. After a long tech he came out to a more open room. A table and a chair were all that existed for furniture in the center, but it was well-lit, a stark difference from the rest of the facility. What looked like research notes was sprawled all around and on top of the table, with a thick brown book in the center. On the chair, however, was a woman. She looked about 24, as far as age was concerned, and had long brown hair, and bright green eyes; they almost seemed to be glowing. She wore a black long-sleeved frilled shirt, a silver belt, and a long black skirt that went down to just below her knees. She had jade-earrings and two silver bracelets on each wrist, and what looked like black dress-shoes. She gave a look of disappointment, but that quickly turned to… oddly enough, concern once she saw the destroyed portion of Dynamo's arm.

"Hey! What happened to you Dynamo!?" She ran toward him, concern in her voice.

"It's nothing more than broken arm; don't worry about it… Kureiji Shurui." Dynamo gave a pained smile; his arm was obviously taking its toll.

"Why are you using my full name? Weirdo… who did this to you?"

"Long story short… went after those clones I told you about like you ordered me; but, I got jumped by the most powerful esper in the city… and he broke my arm… it hurts… a lot." Dynamo answered.

"Ok… ok… come on, let me fix you up." Shurui gestured Dynamo toward the chair in the room.

"Surprised you're actually concerned honestly… you know that even with healing magic it will be a few days before I'm good to go, right? Plus I gotta fix the electronics." Dynamo sat down slowly, trying to avoid as much pain as possible.

"Don't worry. Like I said, I took the liberty of securing some help… though they don't know it. Made their leader a tip he will most definitely jump on…" Shurui smirked when she spoke, her face softened to a simple smile. "Now… let's see what we can do about your arm." Dynamo gave a look of surprise, but looked relieved, easing back.

"You're way too fucking nice for a final boss."

**-Somewhere in Europe-**

In Europe, there exists a Thieves Guild, known simply as Big Bridge. An Insignia of a stone bridge over a high river seemed to be their symbol. Under the dedicated eyes and hands of their leader, they plagued much of Europe, as well as making the occasional travels to other countries, stealing not only valuables, but powerful magical artifacts and weapons. They were well known throughout continent, particularly Britain, but in the rest of the world they seemed to be unknown, and why no-one from this guild has defected for a bribe or been arrested is a complete mystery.

These thieves known as Big Bridge had set up a hideout in the mountainside returning from their biggest heist so far, stealing the Legendary Sword of Kings, Excalibur for their leader's collection and hidden arsenal of weapons. At such campsite with deep red curtains and adorned with demonic, otherworldly looking statues found in ancient temples and castles that they had "visited" before, along with a blue suit of armor taking center place, with golden details and a slim visor, along a wooded-motif flap piece of fabric and an abstract, slender golden blade.

In their celebration revolving around beer, songs and dances, the thieves seemed whole-heartedly moved by their great success, enjoying the very first robbing without any kind of serious adversity or obstacle. A wise choice it seemed, to wait for them to attempt to move their prize, and ambush the convoy. And thus, the powerful weapon of the just-as Legendary King Arthur was theirs. And thus, stealing such an artifact of power warranted a well-deserved celebration.

Far behind, sitting on a red throne, was the thieves' leader, Gilgamesh, as he came to be known, emblazoned in a full body armor that left no uncovered spot, he sported silver boots, attached to golden leg and knee protectors, wearing baggy, black pants held tight by a black belt with a golden buckle, with two long cords sticking out of it and a red sash with golden lining covering his back midsection, thus giving a slight eastern look in his style. His silvery chest plate of full metal alloy had deep red shoulders and arm pieces, adorned abundantly with blue gems, a small green arm section and golden linings in his articulations. His gauntlets were black and the linings extended to them, while his armlets were of the same sparking blue brilliance as his shoulder gems. He wore white gloves, custom made for an advanced grip and dominion of weapons and a short red cape that he considered fitting for a thief of his calibre. His upper body armor extended to covering his neck and mouth with a golden plate possessing blue gems at each side, having openings for the sound to be passed. His helmet was the most characteristic part of his armor, being flat on the top with a white puff of what he claimed to be a mighty beast of some sort. It had small openings, letting his mysterious yellow sight to be seen, hinting at seriousness. Misguided seriousness.

"Such a fine blade… a perfectly bronzed golden hue and a sharpness that makes it even capable of slicing air itself! The hilt is exceptionally very well crafted and imbued with such might that makes me believe anything is possible!" His voice was rugged and had a tone of contemplation, as if he was observing a precious treasure as was Excalibur.

"Sir Gilgamesh! I have great news concerning our lives!" Thus spoke a man covered with red sashes on his head casting a shadow over his only revealed part, his eyes which were deep yellow like Gilgamesh. His feet were covered by brown pointed shoes, dark green pants with a red torn sash at his waist. He had cream colored bandages covering his torso and arms and green, soft-looking green fabric with golden linings fitting loosely from his shoulders to his midsection.

"Enkidu! I was wondering where you had wandered off to! You missed the heist!" Gilgamesh stood up. One would not notice it at first glance, but these two have been through more strange and dangerous adventures than either one of them could account for.

"I apologize for leaving your side, Sir Gilgamesh, but this warranted my attention. The details are concealed within." Enkidu reached into his pants pocket and produced an envelope, handing it over to his master. Gilgamesh promptly opened it and this is what was contained within:

_Greetings and Salutations._

_I cannot reveal who I am, for it would be dangerous for me to do so, but I cannot hide this secret from you any longer._

_Deep within the walls of Academy City, there lies a boy, merely 16 years of age, who wields a powerful weapon._

_The boy is Japanese, and is named Kamijou Touma, and the weapon is known as the Imagine Breaker._

_The weapon has the ability to end all supernatural phenomena upon contact. And because you and your associates deal with a great deal of magic, such a weapon would be invaluable to you._

_A Photograph of the individual has been provided, should you choose to acquire such a weapon for yourself._

It was signed as 'A Caring Friend.' Gilgamesh was taken aback; such a weapon existed, and someone, an outside supporter no less, was providing him with its location? To anyone else it would clearly be some form of trap. But to Gilgamesh, it was an opportunity. He already had Excalibur, a weapon said to give its wielder the unlimited power of God, and if he acquired this, he surely would have the absolute ultimate combination of weapons! Gilgamesh was breathing heavy, not from stress, but absolute excitement. He grabbed his preferred weapon of choice that lay besides his throne, a naginata, a wooden staff with a curved blade at the end, and slammed it's blade into the table in front of him to claim his subordinates' attention, and began to speak.

"My faithful comrades! Tonight, we have stolen the most powerful blade to ever be forged, and this is the reason we celebrate. But it has come to my attention that a just as worthy weapon of interest exists and that shall be our next target! But do not fret, the night is still young! Enjoy yourselves! Drink your beer and wine! Play your bar games! If there are women among us tonight, enjoy the companionship that only they can provide you! But keep in mind that tomorrow once we've all sobered up, we move toward our next target!" This was followed by several cheers and whistles of approval by the entire guild of roughly 100 people.

"Hey, where are we going next, boss-man!?" One asked in all the excitement. Gilgamesh was more than happy to respond.

"I am glad you asked! Our next stop is Japan! Academy City! That is where our destiny will take us!"

* * *

**And there is chapter 4... what do you guys and gals think so far? I'm very interested in knowing how I'm doing. Bye for now, see you next time!**


	5. The Thief

**Hahaha! Chapter 5 is here! Once again, thank you to everyone who has been reviewing my work, and those who have been enjoying it! Five chapters in; i wonder how long the story will be? hmm?**

* * *

"Why do you keep throwing yourself into situations like this!?"

"S-stop Index! That's the seventh time you've bitten me tonight!" After running across Accelerator, a familiar nun-in training known as Index appeared, knowing instinctively that Touma has found himself in yet another possible life-threatening predicament… and then proceeded to bite down on Touma repeatedly. Amidst the violent act of Touma being slowly eaten in rage, the two Misaka clones informed their original that it was time for them to return to the lodgings in the hospital, also stating that the sisters themselves have also launched their own investigation, and now with Dynamo temporarily subdued, they can search with much more freedom, and told their original to rest while she can, also explaining that she will be informed if the Misaka Network uncovers anything of value. All that was really left to do in the night was to explain the situation to Index, which they did when returning to Touma's apartment… only to have Touma be subjected to more abuse in response.

"And why is short-hair here?" Index stopped gnawing on Touma.

"H-he asked me to stay… I was more than willing to find my own lodgings, but he offered…" Mikoto answered. "And stop attacking him! It's really counterproductive to hurt him as a reaction to him going out and getting hurt!"

"Hmph!" Index hopped off Touma's back and landed on the bed. "If it's a magician, even if there is an esper attacking you constantly, why didn't you call me and have me come back sooner?"

"Well… you sounded so excited to go and visit with Stiyl and Kanzaki; I didn't want to disturb you for a problem that I wasn't sure you could do anything about yet. We don't know the magician, and magic intercept probably can't do anything about such a large-calibre spell… so I thought your enjoyment was more important." Touma responded. Index looked angry for a little bit, but her features softened to a gentle smile after a while. Apparently the notion of not wanting to upset her struck some kind of a cord.

"Ne… Touma? How is sleep going to work?" Index asked. Touma looked up, thinking.

"That's right… no way we can all share the bed now… and even if I went to the bathtub like usual, you two probably don't want to sleep together… no choice but to buy extra futons now…" Touma thought openly.

"…You two have been sharing the bed?" Index asked, sporting a suspicious look.

"It was m-my idea! He was actually against it… D-don't go biting him over it." Mikoto replied. Index still looked suspicious, but seemed to accept the answer.

"Well, like I said, don't have a choice now… Hey! With Dynamo gone for now and the sisters looking into the memory phenomenon for us… we can at least have something of a normal day tomorrow. It's a temporary break before getting back to work." Touma stood up, appearing somewhat happy. "Plus I can go outside without having plasma rained on me… It's not that late, a store should be open! I'll go buy some extra futons then!" Touma walked toward the door, but Mikoto stopped him with a tug. Before Touma could ask, she held up what looked like a cash card, putting into Touma's hand.

"The pin is 8926. Use that." Mikoto said simply.

"Why? I have some extra money…"

"Because no matter how you look at it, I'm at the heart of this entire predicament. At least let me take some form of responsibility for your misfortune." Mikoto replied.

"…Thank you, Misaka." Touma gave a heart-warming smile. Mikoto blushed, but didn't say anything. "Alright, I should be able to carry two futons… I'll be back in a while! Don't break anything!" Touma said as he left, a bit of a skip in his step. Mikoto let out a sigh of relief, letting her emotions settle.

"Short hair, was Touma the first person you ran into when this all started?" Index asked.

"No, he wasn't. I went all over the city before I actually ran into him." Mikoto answered, lying down on the ground. "I thought he was affected too. He proved me wrong though. And my name is Misaka Mikoto; I don't like nicknames, so please use my real one." Index nodded

"When did you first meet him?" Index let her legs dangle off the bed.

"…I don't remember the date… except I think it was sometime before he met you. I was getting hit on by some thugs I was about to zap, and he tried to step in to save me I guess. He stepped in right when I unleashed my electricity and they all went down… except for him." Index nodded, understanding that Touma's right hand would protect him. "And after that I'd chase him all over town over and over, challenging him. I don't think there was a day for about three weeks afterward that I didn't try to electrocute him." Mikoto went off, as if thinking out loud. Index frowned after hearing about how much trouble the Railgun brought Touma, and then Mikoto laughed lightly. "It's kinda ironic… you know? I cause him all this trouble and he still steps up and tries to protect me…" Mikoto blushed a bit.

"…How many times has he saved you?" Index asked.

"Well… time's he's stepped in I don't think I'd be able to count if I tried." Mikoto sat up. "But for actually trying to save me… this would probably be the third or fourth time. I don't know how but he always seems to know and always seems to be there…" Mikoto blushed more. "I… I want to pay him back someday. For how much he's done for me… how much he's done for everyone. He's just this guy who will jump into any situation hoping that it will all turn out fine, and he somehow pulls it off over and over again, no matter how much it inconveniences him…" Mikoto closed her eyes with a smile. "I just like to see him happy… I'd also… like to be the one to make him happy…"

"Short hair." Index called out. Mikoto woke up from her trance like state to shout, but saw Index with a heart-warming smile instead. "I always thought you were just some classless girl that Touma just so happened to know. I had no idea you could say such kind things… I was wrong about you." Index jumped down from the bed. "No way could anyone with such a high opinion of someone be negative in any way!" Index turned toward Mikoto. "You like him a lot, don't you?"

"Y-yeah…" Mikoto's blush returned full force.

"Then make him happy!" Index happily shouted. "His life is filled with nothing but misfortune, but I believe it could all be justification for meeting a girl like you. You may be rude sometimes, but I can tell you have a caring heart, and want nothing but a happy ending, just like he does!"

"E-eh? I-I'm not that s-special!" Mikoto shouted. "B-b-besides! Don't you like him too!?"

"Yes… but my position as a nun isn't something I can abandon." Index replied. "I cannot be the companionship he deserves… but that doesn't mean I can't help find it for him!" Index smiled happily. Mikoto was a beat red, but returned the smile. "Hey… why did you end up telling me all of this anyway?"

"Don't know… I guess I just felt like gushing… I can't explain it really." Mikoto shrugged. Index smiled in response. They both looked at each other with some form of understanding. Mikoto had found in an odd situation an odd friend; someone she had always believed was a rival in love.

**-Next Day, 11:00 AM-**

The night was mostly uneventful… mostly. On his way back, Touma was apparently mugged in the street. He was able to keep the cash card hidden, but had to use one of his two new futons as a weapon to fend off his attackers… and it wound up destroyed. He at least had a place to sleep for one of his guests though, and he was quite surprised that Index volunteered for the make-shift mattress Touma managed to save. And even more to his surprise, she had no objection to Touma and Mikoto sharing the bed either. It gave the Imagine Breaker an uncomfortable feeling in his gut; like something else bad was going to happen, or that it was a trap. But no violent acts happened in the night… least any he could remember. Index agreed to stay behind as Touma wanted to do a little something to help Mikoto relax.

"A-are you sure about this…? I-I know we have some time but…" Mikoto looked flushed, but Touma just shrugged.

"It's fine… it's been awhile since you could relax with your friends anyway, right?" Touma replied. His idea was to use his right hand to dispel the magical alterations on some of Mikoto's friends so they could have an outing together like they used too.

"B-but... what are you going to do?" Mikoto asked.

"Well, I was going to go buy some emergency stock for food… my pocket has been recently drained constantly so I haven't been able to replace my emergency food… the only challenge will be finding a place Index won't find it. She is like a giant black hole…"

"So I've heard…" Mikoto said. "So… they are going to meet me at Joseph's?"

"Yup. I've already taken care of it. I hope you enjoy yourself… Shirai-san almost stabbed me with her needles." Touma let out a nervous sigh. "And that was AFTER I dispelled the magic."

"Makes sense…" Mikoto slowly started to smile. "Thank you… T-T-Touma…"

"Don't mention it… just have fun."

**-Joseph's, 15 minutes later-**

"…And stop trying to kill him!"

"O-Onee-sama's whip of love is so… intoxicating!" Kuroko was currently being electrocuted by Mikoto for her attempt at stabbing Touma. One of Mikoto's friends, Saten Ruiko, was busy with supplementary class work and couldn't make it, but both Kuroko and Uiharu were both free. Uiharu was eating some kind of elaborate dessert nonchalantly; this event of violence after all was a common one.

"Misaka-san, how have been things going for you?" Uiharu asked in-between bites.

"Good actually… that Dynamo guy got himself a broken arm and won't be messing with me for a while." Mikoto said with a dark but satisfied tone.

"So he's not after you anymore?"

"Not for a while anyway…" Mikoto lay back in her seat.

"I'm sorry… I know you want to relax but… I found a news article after we met last time…" Uiharu pulled out her laptop. "When I tried to look into it… Dynamo hacked my computer… but since he can't now, would you like to take a look?" Mikoto looked up thinking, and then shrugged.

"Eh… why not? Let's see why this bastard is who he is." Mikoto leaned forward as Uiharu typed away on her laptop. She turned it around to Mikoto when the link was opened and it looked like there wasn't any sort of outside tampering. Mikoto scrolled through the article, which read as follows:

_Scientist Dies During Lab Experiment – Article Number 865448864_

_Last week we reported on the results of the IMPULSE project and its exoskeleton research, we are sad to bring our readers bad news._

_Yesterday, Head Scientist and Head Designer known simply as "Gate," has lost his life in a tragic accident during an experiment. A new model suit they were testing suddenly went haywire and resulted in the death of its pilot, Gate. As you may know, Gate was the founder of the project as a whole, and founded it with his old childhood friend, known as "Dynamo." The IMPULSE project team says that they are still at hard at work, and are insuring that such an event is to never happen again, but Dynamo himself has refused to make a public statement. In review of the project, it also seems that Dynamo will be over-taking the live-experiments from now on, however._

_Funeral services are planned for Saturday the 27th, and our hearts go out the friends and families of the deceased._

"…So the death of his best friend then." Mikoto said. "If he's going this far, Dynamo must have found something related to the accident… possibly sabotage set up to kill this 'Gate,' person."

"A covered-up murder-case where he is taking matters into his own hands for revenge. His motive is clear as day." Kuroko added.

"Guess I'll just have to confront him about it next time I see him… but enough about that stuff. I just want to have a normal day today." Mikoto concluded with a small smile.

**-Touma's location-**

"…Things are going too well." Touma lamented. He had managed to get his emergency rations like how wanted to… completely undisturbed. Even the usual gang members that would harass him seemed to be non-existent today, it gave him a very foreboding feeling. The only odd thing he seemed to notice was…

"Hey, do you know this kid?" It was something Touma was starting to overhear more and more frequently. The only kind of correction he could find that every single one of the men asking the question and holding up a picture all had a red bandana with a bridge on it somewhere on their person. Touma also found it just as foreboding that none of them have asked him yet. Everyone around Touma, but not himself, has been asked so far. Desperate to get away, Touma ducked into a random alleyway, exiting the other side. He managed to make it home uneventfully and dropped off the groceries, finding it rather difficult to hide them in a place Index couldn't find. After doing so he promptly left to wander around the city.

"…I wonder how Misaka is doing. I hope she's having a good time." Touma's mind seemed to be drifting toward the emotions of this girl more and more often. Touma shrugged it off; she was the girl he was helping out after all, it was only natural to think more about her and hoping that she is safe and enjoying herself. Touma's thoughts however were interrupted by the appearance of one of those random men with the bridge-bandana.

"Hey, do you-" The man stopped himself, looking at the photograph he had, before grinning. "What do you know, I found you!"

"W-whatever do you mean?" Touma asked nervously.

"I mean me and my boys have been looking all over this damn city for you!" The man replied back roughly. Touma eyed the man in front of him, and then noticed something; there was a rather big knife on his waist; too large for just simple civilian uses. It could even be classified as a small sword in some circles.

"I-I don't think I'm who you're looking for…" Touma replied.

"Oh yes you are!" The man replied, holding up the picture… of Touma. "Kamijou Touma, 16 years old, has a nifty little weapon… our boss would like to have a word with you." Before Touma had realized it, several more of these men started to surround him, all of varying shapes and sizes. There must have been at least seven of them.

"W-well… you see…" Touma trailed off, before suddenly turning around and running down the street at full speed.

"Boys! Stop dicking around and get after him! The boss will get pissed if we let him get away!" The man shouted. His associates shouted in agreement and began to chase the Imagine Breaker.

"Why does this kind of stuff keep happening to me!? Such misfortune!" Touma shouted as he ran as fast as he could to try and ditch his pursuers.

**-Touma's Apartment-**

"Ha… Touma thought he was being clever." Index flipped a small potato chip into her mouth. It took a lot of searching and throwing, but she managed to find the food Touma had hid from her… and the last bag of baked chips seemed to be the last of it. She had already cooked up the noodles and the pork. She still felt a little hungry though; she would have to hassle Touma about dinner later. A knock came from the door, interrupting her feeding. She answered the door with a polite smile only to meet with a much taller man wearing a black cloak with straight red hair and a barcode underneath his right eye. He was also smoking a cigarette

"Stiyl… if you missed me so much you could have just said so." Index greeted her guest.

"This isn't about anything like that!" Stiyl shouted, before calming down; he looked rather embarrassed. "Where is Kamijou Touma?"

"He's out around town, what do you need with him?"

"There has been a theft of the legendary sword Excalibur, and the thief is within Academy City." Stiyl promptly answered. Index sighed.

"And you want him to help catch him…?" Index replied in an annoyed tone.

"No; he is the thief's next target." Stiyl replied. A look of surprise and dread came over Index's face. "Kanzaki is searching for him; I thought he would be at home."

"I'm not sure where he went… he must be out looking for stuff on that magician that's causing trouble!"

"Magician? I haven't heard of a magician coming here recently…" Stiyl replied.

"I'll explain what's been happening on the way, but we should make sure Touma is ok first!"

**-Touma's Location-**

"W-why are they multiplying!?" What had started at seven armed thugs has multiplied to at least 20 of them. They all had different kinds of weapons, swords, knives, brass knuckles; even a few were carrying guns. "Just who the hell are these guys and what do they want with me!?"

"Stop moving around you son of a bitch!" One of the guys shouted.

"So you guys can come and maul me?! No way in hell! I don't even know what you want with me!" Touma shouted back, only receiving gunfire in response. "Oh man… how am I going to get out of this…!?" He was slowly approaching that iron bridge that Mikoto would always challenge him to a fight on. "Wait… I could call her… but…" Touma mulled it over, taking out his phone. "I don't want to… please forgive me!" He assumed he couldn't get away with a phone call, so he quickly sent out a text. "Please find me... oof!" Touma suddenly ran into something large. Large and solidly built. He fell backward and noticed that the thugs weren't chasing him anymore, slipping the phone back into his pocket as the thug's moral seemed to strangely rise.

"Oh boy, the fun parts gonna start!"

"Say your prayers you spike-haired bastard!'

"Make him cry boss!"

"W-what a second…" Touma scurried back and climbed to his feet. "B-boss…!?" Touma looked up to see a large, fully-armored red man, wielding a naginata, and a second smaller man wearing a green and gold outfit with a red sash around his head. Both of them had glowing yellow eyes.

"Look what we have here Enkidu… I send out the full guild and the guy we're looking for comes to us." The large man said.

"So it would seem…" The smaller one added.

"U-um… If you don't mind me asking this: just who the hell are you and what do you want with me!?" Touma shouted. The large man's response was to swing his naginata down at Touma, who jumped back to dodge at the blade met the pavement of the bridge. Touma looked up with a worried expression.

"Kamijou Touma…" The large main said low, but with a hint of joy, and began to laugh for a moment. "I am the leader of these fine men… I am also the most powerful swordsman alive… but more importantly…" The man spun his weapon around before aiming it at Touma. "I am Gilgamesh! All your weapons are forfeit to me!"

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**And there you go. Let me know what you people think, like always. Good day! ^^**


	6. Clash on the Big Bridge

**I hope I haven't left you all waiting too long! here is chapter 6! Enjoy!**

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"So… nothing has really changed?" Mikoto asked in surprise.

"Yeah… we get this odd feeling that someone who isn't here should be, but besides that, nothing really changes with what we do… at least I think so anyway…" Uiharu replied.

"But it feels so wonderful each time I grace my eyes in remembrance of Onee-sama! If only that man wasn't the only one who can make me remember…" Kuroko added.

"So it's like I was never here… but everything and everyone acts like I was here." Mikoto mused. "That's really twisted… but also kind of smart… if people's actions don't change, they won't assume anything is wrong and won't look into it." Her cell-phone began to vibrate; a text message, but from who? Mikoto opened and read the text and her face began to display seriousness. "Uiharu, can you hack the GPS systems and find me that idiot's location?"

"…That guy?" Uiharu asked, referring to Touma. Mikoto nodded, and Uiharu began to type away on her laptop. "Looks like he's on a bridge… a metal one… there are a lot of guys around him; they all appear to be armed. Oh my, a big one is aiming a naginata at him!"

"A naginata? This day and age? Is this some sort of cosplay event that the ape got trapped in?" Kuroko commented. Mikoto stood up.

"That idiot got himself in trouble and asked me for help." Mikoto was disappointed that her day off ended so quickly, but smiled a little anyway.

"Nya~ Kami-yan asking for help? That's unheard of!" A voice from behind said.

"T-Tsuchimikado-san!" Mikoto spun around to see the blond-haired spy sitting at a table, but he didn't seem to be alone.

"Next thing you know, Kami-yan will embrace the effects of the disease he gives out to everyone and finally seek out the harem ending! It's so out of character for him~" A boy said, roughly the same age at Tsuchimikado with blue hair. He was known as Aogami Peirce, the third member of the Delta Force.

"J-just what the hell are you two talking about!?" Mikoto shouted.

"Nothing, nothing~ don't worry. It seems as though you wormed your way into Kami-yan's heart after all~ maybe you can win the game and get your own special ending as a secret character!" Aogami said.

"W-what are you talking about?" Mikoto asked nervously.

"Kami-yan is always going out of his way to protect people, Nya! If he's asking for help, he must really be in trouble… or he really thinks highly of you!" Tsuchimikado answered, making Mikoto blush.

"Hai hai, Kami-yan is so hard to impress; he treats everyone the same! You must be important to him in some way to stand out like this~" Aogami added, making Mikoto blush harder and shake her head wildly.

"S-s-shut up! Don't say such embarrassing things!" Mikoto shouted. "K-Kuroko! Get me out of here! I'm going to go help that idiot! Uiharu, keep an eye on the area and call me if any more of those thugs show up!" Both mentioned girls could only nod in response. Kuroko and Mikoto vanished without a trace as Uiharu began to type away on her computer.

"You're right~ messing with her is fun!" Aogami said.

"The only one who's funnier is Kami-yan you know~"

"I wonder if we mocked Kami-yan about Miko-chan we'd get the blush-blush response too!" Aogami suggested.

"That would mean that Kami-yan would have been affected by his own disease, you know?" Tsuchimikado replied.

"That would be disappointing, I must admit. I think that out of everyone, Kami-yan would be the only one capable of getting the harem ending." Aogami said cheerfully. "Ah well, a story with multiple endings is best, don't you think? You can go back and try and get them all for 100% completion!"

"You play too many dating sims, Aogami."

**-Academy City Streets, Stiyl and Index's location-**

"What was stolen!?" Index cried fearfully.

"Excalibur; There was a weak point in its transport to a more secure location, and the thieves guild known as Big Bridge stole it. We have a reason to believe their leader now possesses it, and may even use it in combat." Stiyl replied.

"But why are the thieves here? And why were they after Touma!?" Index shouted.

"He is after the Imagine Breaker. Intel says that he believes that it is a weapon that Kamijou Touma wields." Stiyl replied.

"That's not right… but that means we should find him faster, who knows what he will do when he finds out!"

**-Steel Bridge-**

"What do you mean by 'you don't have any weapons!?' I know that is a lie!" Gilgamesh shouted.

"Of course I'm not lying!? Why would a high school student carry around a gun or a knife!?" Touma shouted back.

"Bullshit! I was told by a reliable source that you own a weapon! A powerful one!" Gilgamesh put his hands on his sides, his glowing eyes giving off frustration.

"Oh yeah!? What weapon!? Tell me!" Touma fired back.

"Imagine Breaker! I was told it can cancel out all magic and other stuff!" Gilgamesh pointed.

"…Eh? That's accurate but Imagine Breaker isn't a weapon!" Touma replied. "My right hand is the Imagine Breaker. Any supernatural phenomenon that touches it is completely destroyed."

"…" Gilgamesh remained quieted for a moment. "Y-you are so attached to your weapon, you fused your arm with it so it can be with you always!?"

"What!? No! Of course not! And even if I wanted to, something like that would be negated by the effect of the Imagine Breaker itself!" Touma shouted.

"No way! I was told you have a weapon, so this is the only explanation!" Gilgamesh stomped.

Touma deadpanned; it's like talking to a wall.

"I'll just carve the weapon out of your arm then fix you up! I'll make it like it never happened, so there are no worries!"

"Can't we talk about this!?" Touma shouted.

"The time for talk has passed! Have at you!" Gilgamesh swung his naginata down on Touma, who side-stepped. Touma took the opportunity to grab the weapon with his right hand, thinking that it would be a magical one considering his opponent's dress and odd-style, but there was no cracking sound, and no shattering. Shit. It was just a normal non-magical naginata. Gilgamesh quickly shook off Touma's arm and swung again, the second wing cutting open Touma's shirt, revealing a small bit of his chest. The next swings were quick but avoidable. The exchange of constant dodging went on for a time, before Gilgamesh suddenly stopped. "…Not bad; you're Very quick on your feet."

"Does this mean the fight is over…?" Touma hopefully asked.

"Of course not! It simply means that I must use a different weapon!" Gilgamesh spun his weapon around before sliding it… into what looked like his own back, the weapon vanishing completely. His hands pulled out a sheathed katana. "A masamune blade… a famous line of swords, as I'm sure a Japanese man such as yourself can probably tell. But… there is something about this particular blade…" Gilgamesh drew the blade slowly, and slashed one of the steel beams, the sword cutting right through it like paper. The bridge groaned at one of it supports being cut, but it soon stabilized. "Understand?"

"…Yeah, I understand perfectly." Touma smirked. "Come on; let's see what that sword can do!"

"Such a change in attitude…" Gilgamesh suddenly charged, swinging his katana. Touma stood his ground, and reached out to the blade; they both met and a cracking sound was heard. Gilgamesh stood, with a confused look, and then his blade abruptly shattered, the sudden lack of support causing Gilgamesh to fall forward, eyes widening.

"Attacking people out of the blue to try and rob them!? I'm going to break that illusion of yours!" Touma shouted, and smashed his left fist into the side of Gilgamesh's head, with enough force to hammer the large man into the ground. Gilgamesh rolled after the impact, and whispers were going all around at least, until Gilgamesh climbed to his feet.

"You not only destroyed my weapon… but dealt a powerful blow to me…" Gilgamesh looked toward Touma, but not with eyes full of rage, but eyes full of excitement. "Amazing! Absolutely amazing! That's what I expected of the wielder of such a powerful weapon! You do not disappoint me at all!"

"What are you going to do now? I broke your last resort weapon." Touma eyed his opponent carefully.

"No matter… because I can do this!" Gilgamesh gripped the hilt of his broken sword tightly, and in a large flash of light, the sword was fixed. Good as new. "I cannot recall where… but somewhere down the line I acquired this ability, it's called 'Weapon Regeneration!' If a blade breaks or if a gun runs out of bullets, then I can fix it! Good as new, as if it was never used or worn down! And on top of this, this sword is hardly a last resort. I have a plethora of other weapons I can use!"

"…What an annoying ability. I can keep breaking your weapons over and over if I need to." Touma responded. "Even if I could hand over my Imagine Breaker, I wouldn't! There is too much ridding on this ability of mine for me to just give it up!"

"So! You'll keep it until your last breath!? It's been a while since I've had a duel to the death!" Gilgamesh replied, pulling out what looked like a large broadsword to join the katana. Before their duel could continue, a sound of clapping thunder struck from behind Touma. Before either could notice, the blockade of soldiers was blasted apart, sprawled over the ground… and sparking. Where they once all gathered stood a single middle school girl.

"M-Misaka!" Touma stuttered in surprise.

"Friend of yours? It doesn't matter, this is a one on one-" A beam of orange light smashed into Gilgamesh. The beam continued onward down the bridge, while Gilgamesh rolled backward down the street, before promptly stopping on his back with his feet aimed up, and then dropping down with a loud thud; Gilgamesh letting out a pained groan in response.

"Sir Gilgamesh!" The green-outfitted man shouted, at an oddly hire pitch than expected; rushing over to the downed weapon thief.

"There. Problem solved. What the hell was all this about?" Mikoto asked.

"Those guys you fried were chasing me all over town… more and more kept showing up and I figured the only way to take them all down was you…" Touma started. "And then I ran into that big lug, which ended up being their boss."

"Such a brute of a man; Apes really do attract each other I see." Kuroko appeared in-between Mikoto and Touma with her teleport ability. "Such a task was so simplistic for Onee-sama; I'm beginning to question your usefulness."

"…Let me know when you can take down an entire mob of armed guys super-easy then say that to me again." Touma wagged his finger. Kuroko was about to retort but one of the electrocuted thugs started to speak.

"Stupid little kids… do ya really think our big boss would go down for the count after a little hit like that?" He coughed, and spoke as though he were in pain. Kuroko laughed in an amused manner

"Insolent little man. That was a full-on Railgun. No-way someone could-"

"That shot… was a good one!" Gilgamesh suddenly bellowed into the air, abruptly jumping to his feet. The armor on his front was indeed destroyed, just barley covering his upper-torso. The thick steel was apparently enough to prevent the attack from doing significant damage. "That's a powerful friend you got there, Kamijou Touma!"

"Oh will you stay down!?" Touma shouted angrily. Gilgamesh laughed.

"Why would I back down now, when this fight keeps getting more and more interesting!? I'm going to have to stop holding back!" Gilgamesh replied.

"Hey! Do you really think you can take all three of us on at once!?" Mikoto shouted.

"Enough expository banter!" Gilgamesh's arms pulsed. "Now we fight like men!" One of his arms muscles bulged, breaking out of the steel armor. "And ladies!" His other arm followed the act of the first. "And ladies who dress like men!"

"…I believe that last comment was directed toward you, Onee-sama." Kuroko smugly commented, referring to Mikoto's favourability of wearing shorts underneath her skirt.

"Kuroko…!" Mikoto angrily grunted.

"For Gilgamesh...**it is morphing time!"** The biggest changes made themselves known. Gilgamesh abruptly enlarged, gaining about a foot in height, the rest of his body staying proportional, and his outfit growing with it. His helmet changed as well, the cloth completely vanishing and horns suddenly appearing. But the most obvious change was now Gilgamesh had eight arms, the extra six coming from Gilgamesh's back; each one wielding a weapon; the naginata from before, the katana, the large brown broadsword, a blue curved scimitar, a battle axe, and a knife that oddly seemed to be modelled after a chicken. The weapons also apparently increased in size proportionally, and only Gilgamesh's bulkier original arms were unarmed. "Ha! Now the real fight begins!"

"H-hey… w-what do you think we should do about this crazy development!?" Mikoto asked nervously.

"Isn't it obvious…?" Touma answered, promptly grabbing Mikoto's arm. "Run!" At Touma's command, all three turned tail, trying to put as much distance between them and Gilgamesh as possible.

"…Hey! Running away when the going gets tough is my bit! Get back here!" Gilgamesh angrily shouted, running full speed after them. Enkidu, the man in green, could only sigh, and follow after quickly.

**-20 minutes later-**

"Ugh… where the hell did they go!?" Gilgamesh angrily shouted. He chased the running trio for as long as he could, but they eventually gave the large multi-armed man the slip. Most of the people in the area were surprised, but assumed Gilgamesh was some kind of esper, and chose to leave the area, fearing violence. "Where… where could they have gone…?" Gilgamesh turned around constantly; standing in the middle of a four-way crosswalk. Meanwhile, the three he was perusing were hiding in a small alleyway a rather safe distance from the crosswalk, with Touma acting as a watchman.

"Ok, what the hell is going on!?' Kuroko asked. "I've never heard of an esper with an ability like that!"

"…Why is he even after you in the first place?" Mikoto asked.

"He's after my right arm. He thinks it's some kind of weapon he can just take…" Touma replied.

"So it's another one of your strange situations… seriously. How could such an ape get into so much trouble…?" Kuroko commented. "What kind of ability is he using to cause such a physical change?" Touma eyed Kuroko for a moment, and then sighed.

"…It has to be magic. Esper abilities can't alter the user's physical body like this." Touma replied, getting a nervous look form Mikoto, but a skeptical one from Kuroko.

"Magic? What kind of lame explanation is that?" The teleporter asked. "I'll buy that it can't be an esper ability, but such a thing as magic doesn't exist. He must have been some kind of genetic experiment gone wild."

"But then how did he conceal himself like that? You saw it; he grew right in front of us." Touma shot back.

"Did you consider that he may have an illusionary style of esper ability in addition to his monstrous form? Like bending rays of light to make something appear where there is actually something else." Kuroko replied. Touma sighed in frustration; knowing such a thing to be impossible in this situation because of the close contact he had with Gilgamesh.

"Kuroko…" Mikoto started. "He's right. Even if such an ability would work, all the factors involved wouldn't add up. He would be able to bend light to cast illusions, but the moment anyone got close to him the ruse would be revealed."

"Onee-sama… don't tell me you believe this ape's story!" Kuroko replied.

"I've seen magic first hand, Kuroko." Mikoto said. "I've seen it several times. Acts that have nothing to do with espers, and even acts that it would be impossible for espers to do, like this guy suddenly turning into a giant!" Mikoto took a deep breath. "…And this whole situation with everyone forgetting about me? It's magic too."

"O-Onee-sama… but you said…" Kuroko stuttered. "Why didn't…. why didn't you tell me this before?"

"Because, I didn't want you getting hurt because of me." Mikoto answered. "There's… there are a lot of things I haven't told you… because I don't want you wrapped up in them or hurt by them." Kuroko looked stunned, then her gaze directed toward Touma.

"You knew… didn't you?" Kuroko questioned. "Not just about magic… but everything." Kuroko was referring, of course, to the Sisters Project and the Level shift. Kuroko herself doesn't know anything about it, or even its name to be specific, she just knew that it was a serious matter involving her Onee-sama and that Touma was somehow involved.

"Yeah… I knew." Touma answered. "You can blame me for some of it; Misaka wouldn't have gotten involved with the magic side if it wasn't for me… she probably wouldn't be in such a tough situation right now with the memory phenomena too now that I think about it…"

"…Is this man involved?" Kuroko asked, looking out from the alleyway toward Gilgamesh.

"Probably; that Dynamo wouldn't be above deception. Probably conned this guy into attacking me while he recovered, giving himself some time." Touma answered.

"What are we going to do about him then?" Kuroko asked in a serious tone.

"I'm not sure… I might be able to handle him myself." Touma answered. "This transformation of his is magical; so my right hand should be able to forcefully negate it, and the shock to his system would leave him open."

"Why are you making a plan that only involves you?" Mikoto asked.

"Because that's the idea; if it's just me, nothing bad will happen if it doesn't work. I wouldn't have tried to get you to come after me today if I knew something like this was going to happen."

"What do you mean nothing bad will happen? You'll get hurt!" Mikoto shouted.

"So what? No one else would, so what's the problem?" Touma replied back casually.

"But you will!" Mikoto shouted. "You're someone, remember?"

"Biri-biri, relax. I'm not worth worrying abou-"

"Like hell you're not!" Mikoto shouted louder.

"What are you talking about?" Touma looked genuinely confused.

"Isn't obvious you idiot!?" Mikoto walked up to the now nervous Touma, pressing her finger into his chest. "That time with those thugs; you tried to help me for no reason. That time with my sisters; you helped me for no reason. And all those other times you might have saved my life; you helped me for no reason!" A blush formed on her face, but she continued. "Even back with World War III, I was trying to save you, but you turned me away because you didn't want me to get hurt, because you knew killing that thing might have killed you! Don't you get it!? You are an absolutely amazing person! Not just because of your damn right arm, but because of what you're willing to do with it to make sure there is a happy ending! You go out of your way for every single person you meet, even if you don't think much of them, just so that no one gets hurt!" Mikoto took a deep breath, and seemingly clamed down. "You are an amazing person… don't go selling yourself short, you idiot!"

"M-Misaka…" Touma was taken aback. "Is… is that how you really think of me?" Mikoto blushed harder.

"Y-yes… yes it is… so don't go throwing yourself out into danger like you don't matter. I said I'd share your burdens, didn't I?" Mikoto replied.

"…"Touma remained silent for a moment, and then looked back toward Gilgamesh. The man in green had appeared again. "…We need to do something about his sidekick."

"You can leave that to me." Kuroko suddenly chimed in cheerfully. "A small fry like that I can handle." Touma and Mikoto were both surprised at Kuroko's sudden cheerfulness, but disregarded it.

"So… that leaves Gilgamesh to you and me." Touma said. "Are… you sure about this?" He turned to Mikoto, who gave a confident smile.

"Yes I am! Let's waste him!" The small sparks coming from Mikoto's bangs was all Touma needed to believe in her confident words.

* * *

**Here's a fun heads up: While Dynamo is heavily based on another character from another series... Gilgamesh IS another character from another series! I thought that adding such an eccentric character would make a decent plot for a magic-style part of the story, plus spice things up just a tiny bit. How did i do? Thanks in advance!**


	7. Escalating Situation

**Lucky Number 7 has arrived... oh, and since arguably a lot of people have been asking, i'll include Gilgamesh's origins in the AN at the end... enjoy! ^^**

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"Huh… where could they have gone? Could they just have really upped and left like that?" Gilgamesh, still in his massive eight-armed form, stood. He appeared both annoyed… but also confused and curious, wondering how his three targets could have escaped him so easily.

"No. They are still in the area." Enkidu replied. A light wind blew and he looked toward the north. "Three humanoid bodies… wait. Only two… where did the third go?" Suddenly a powerful two-foot-kick came from behind, nailing Enkidu in the back of the head and knocking him to the ground.

"I'm sorry; it is rather rude of me to just appear like that…" Kuroko cheerfully said. She was standing on the ground, as if she was always there to begin with. Gilgamesh lifted his naginata and broadsword and slammed them both down on her, only to meet pavement, and felt an odd weight on his head.

"But the situation called for me to be so rude; I hope you can forgive me…" Kuroko stood on top of Gilgamesh's head. The eight-armed man looked up for a moment, then brought his two free arms up, trying to grab her, but got nothing but air. Kuroko suddenly appeared in front of Gilgamesh and smashed both of her feet into his face. Gilgamesh stumbled backward, holding his face, while Kuroko did a graceful flip in the air, landing safely.

"I am Shirai Kuroko, part of the 177th branch of Judgment, both of you are under arrest!" She flashed her green armband, symbolizing her position in Judgment and her resolve.

"Why you…!" Gilgamesh brought down his hand and was about to charge, but Enkidu stopped him. Gilgamesh looked down to his subordinate to see him stepping forward, holding out his arms. Enkidu's hands twitched, and suddenly transformed into furred claws. His feet suddenly grew and burst from the shoes, becoming furred and clawed as well. Two horns came from his temples, aimed forward, but didn't disrupt the cloth around his head. Finally, a set of two large wings burst from his back, slipping through two slots in the green outfit; they appeared large and almost angelic.

"Leave this piece of insolent trash to me, Sir Gilgamesh." Enkidu rushed Kuroko in a speedy dash, but Kuroko's teleport was faster, and she appeared on top of a lamp post this time.

"So there is more than one way you're related… why do men always think that a beastly-transformation suddenly makes them the superior…?" Kuroko cheerfully said. Enkidu flew toward the lamppost and slashed, but Kuroko vanished again. However, the claws were apparently sharp enough to slice right through the solid steel like paper. This continued for a while, until a pattern formed; Kuroko kept teleporting farther away, leading Enkidu farther from his master. Gilgamesh noticed this, but didn't do anything, and even let out a pleasant chuckle.

"Kids these days… they're always so full of energy." His glowing eyes had a cheerfulness look to them. Pain suddenly erupted through Gilgamesh's body; large blue sparks flew all over the place. He was being electrocuted. When the assault stopped Gilgamesh looked to the north, to see Misaka Mikoto staring him down with a smirk. "You… where is Kamijou Touma?"

"Why are you looking for him…? You don't even stand a chance against me, so why bother?" Mikoto replied, sparks coming from her bangs.

"Ha! All talk! If you think that you are so strong, or that I am so weak, and then prove it!" Gilgamesh shouted back.

In response, Mikoto enveloped herself in electricity before discharging it all in a stream toward Gilgamesh. The eight-armed giant used his six weapons to block; the force of the discharge was stopped, but the painful voltage travelled through the steel. Gilgamesh grunted in pain until the electricity subsided.

"Had enough?" Mikoto smirked as smoke was coming form Gilgamesh's form.

"That hurt… but I can do that too!" Gilgamesh's free right arm began to surge with electricity before firing it off toward Mikoto; causing a loud boom. The Railgun took the hit, but didn't move.

"What was that? I didn't feel a thing." Mikoto said. Gilgamesh began to gather more electricity.

"Why you…!?" Gilgamesh's electricity suddenly vanished; Touma had gotten onto Gilgamesh's back and placed the large man in a head-lock, being sure to keep contact with his right hand.

"What…? Why aren't you transforming back?" Touma asked. The cut-off of supernatural power was obvious, but Gilgamesh remained the eight-armed giant he had transformed into.

"Haha! Because this is my true form! You can't force me back because this is how I'm supposed to look!" Gilgamesh triumphantly responded, pounding his chest.

"Damn it… I guess it's time for plan B, such misfortune." Touma lamented.

"Plan B…?" Gilgamesh asked slowly. Mikoto fired off her signature railgun directly into Gilgamesh's stomach. His feet grinded against the ground as he flew backward, eventually he came crashing through a display window of some store. Touma had jumped off just before the blast hit Gilgamesh, rolling to the side. The impact caused much of the front of the building to collapse on the eight-armed man.

"I didn't like plan B." Touma sighed.

"You didn't wind up getting hurt or worse, so it's fine." Mikoto summed up, helping Touma to his feet.

"…It could have gone worse. I didn't think that such a transformation would turn out to be the guy's true form… It's a good thing that you came along… thank you." Just that simple act caused a red blush to spread across Mikoto's face. Before she could say anything more, the rubble from the impact suddenly went flying everywhere, leaving a rather dirty looking Gilgamesh standing straight up.

"Oww… took the full-on that time…I think I'll skip dinner tonight." Gilgamesh coughed before stepping out of the rubble and dusting himself off.

"My god, how many hits can you take!?" Touma shouted in disbelief.

"Plenty! My endurance is second to none!" Gilgamesh replied. "But if receive another blast in the same spot… I'm afraid I might get ripped in half." Then, he started to laugh. "Yes… yes! Of course! It would be a beautiful moment to test out my most recent prize!"

He reached over his shoulder, and slowly drew a large, golden blade. The sword practically shined, despite not being in light, and the hilt had a sun-like design. "Behold the king of blades, the most powerful of all weapons, Excalibur!"

"Excalibur…? You mean like in those old King Arthur stories…?" Mikoto asked curiously.

"The very same! Now…" Gilgamesh suddenly dashed forward, much faster than before. "Feel its legendary sting!" Gilgamesh swung down, the sword making a mighty explosive impact. But it didn't meet flesh; it met solid steel. Before the duo, a woman with long black hair tied in a pony-tail, but was still long enough to reach down to her hips. She was fending off the assault with a long nodachi sword. With a hard shove she forced Gilgamesh back a few feet, creating some breathing room.

"K-Kanzaki? What are you doing here!?" Touma shouted in surprise while Mikoto looked on in confusion. How many different girls does this guy know anyway!?

"…You don't know?" Kanzaki replied. "I was sent here to subdue this man and retrieve the stolen holy weapon Excalibur, along with any other magical artifacts he possesses. The only clue was that he was seeking out your Imagine Breaker next. Stiyl hasn't met with you yet?" Touma shook his head no, and Gilgamesh started to laugh.

"Seven Heavens Seven Swords… it's a powerful blade wielded by only one; Kanzaki Kaori! The air… it is filled with possibilities today!" Gilgamesh said in excitement. "So many weapons, so many powers… I can barely contain myself!"

"I'll end those possibilities here." Kanzaki aimed her nodachi at Gilgamesh, who in turn gripped his Excalibur with both of his hands and tensed his six extra ones, preparing for the ensuing conflict.

**-Kuroko's Location-**

"What's wrong~? Having trouble keeping up with me?" Kuroko teleported again, dodging yet another clawed assault.

"Do you ever shut up!?" Enkidu replied in anger, slashing at the teleporter again. Kuroko vanished, but re-appeared shortly after, kicking Enkidu in the chest and forcing him back against a wall. She then lifted up her skirt to just a little, revealing two brown straps containing steel needles. She ran her hands along the needles and one by one they vanished, re-appearing in random parts of Enkdiu's clothes and into the wall he was pressed against, binding him to it. Enkidu looked and struggled confused while Kuroko started to laugh.

"My my… how disappointing. I figured you'd put up more of a fight than that. The only task remaining is to subdue that giant imbecile you call master."

"You don't stand a chance against Sir Gilgamesh." Enkidu replied. Due to the outfit, his arms were free, but the rest of his body was a very different story.

"I don't need to. Onee-sama and that ape have more than likely defeated him by now; it will just be a matter of arresting him." Kuroko replied.

"Ha! Gilgamesh's endurance is second to none! His strength only surpassed by the ancient titans of old! There is no way two little kids stand a chance against him!" Enkidu fired back.

"We will see… I'll be back to properly cuff your beast-like hands later~" Kuroko cheerfully replied.

"No chance. I'll defeat you here and go take care of the other pests, and then we will return home with our new prize." Enkidu replied.

"I highly doubt that…I can easily replace the needles you pull out you know; you can't free yourself till I'm gone… and even if you do that by the time you'd get there your precious leader will be wallowing in a pool of his own failure." Kuroko confidentially said. Enkidu let out an annoyed huff, but then closed his eyes.

"…Grand tempest of old, hear my cry. Let your powerful force you unleashed on the world come once more to ravage all. Force your life-ending air to my will once more!" Enkidu held out his hand, aimed at Kuroko. The wind seemed to pick up very rapidly, all converging on Enkidu's arm, a physical form of wind suddenly appearing around his hand. **"Void Tearing Vortex!"** The wind suddenly erupted into a massive stream of razor wind as it raced toward Kuroko. She teleported into the air, dodging, but the attack curved and chased her. Kuroko teleported several times but each time the wind would change direction, following her. She teleported to the ground and the massive storm smashed into the ground after her; the force slicing up the area and the force shattering the pavement. Shards of broken glass from the surrounding buildings were everywhere. Enkidu promptly freed himself after his successful attack, and wandered to the affected area. Dust was everywhere; kicked up from the attack. Enkidu waited for it to subside, expecting to see a sliced up bloody corpse but found nothing… and then suddenly felt something on his back.

"Sorry to disappoint, but I'm very far from dead." Kuroko wrapped her legs around Enkidu's torso and locked her arms around his, restraining him, while Enkidu struggled to free himself from the attack. He almost succeeded, breaking Kuroko's grip momentarily, but she quickly grabbed onto Enkidu's chest… and felt something . . . soft. Curious, Kuroko squeezed it and heard a rather feminism cry escape Enkidu's lips, at a completely different pitch than before, and Enkdiu's body suddenly locked in place, mostly out of embarrassment. It took a moment, but Kuroko quickly figured it out.

Enkidu, the being that even Gilgamesh referred to as a man, was actually a woman, and the soft thing she was squeezing were one of Enkidu's breasts. And the apparent jolt of such an action forced Enkidu to end the voice-disguising act and let her actual original voice come forth.

"Let go let go let go let go!" Enkidu chanted it like a mantra, in a much more woman-like tone, as well as thrashing around trying to break Kuroko's grip. Kuroko eventually teleported away, afraid of what would happen if her grip was broken, re-appearing a few meters away. Enkidu breathed heavily out of embarrassment for a few moments, trying to calm down.

"…So you're a girl then. Partially explains why you're following him around… but why let him talk to you as if you were a man?" Kuroko asked in curiosity.

"S-Sir Gilgamesh… Is an amazing person… b-but he's not the most perceptive one out there… and…" Enkidu trailed off.

"And rather than insult his intelligence about your true gender, you preferred to let him think you're a male." Kuroko finished. Enkidu nodded, but then furiously started to shake her head.

"W-why the hell am I telling you all this!? It doesn't matter! I'll take you down and return to him like I always do!" Enkidu shouted.

"If it were other circumstances, I wouldn't mind letting that happen… but I'm fighting on the behalf of someone I care deeply about as well… even if she has fallen for someone completely beneath her." Kuroko replied while Enkidu gave a curious look. "This isn't a time I can show any weakness, so I will perform my best for Onee-sama!"

**-Gilgamesh's Location-**

He was swinging wildly. She was blocking wildly. Over and over Gilgamesh slashed with all seven of his weapons, each one with varying degrees of power, and over and over Kanzaki blocked each strike. The important ones to not let slip by were the strikes using Excalibur; the others could be dodged without much negative outcome.

"You're not too bad at this!" Gilgamesh said in-between strikes. Kanzaki however didn't reply. She was focused on blocking each strike, biding her time to land a decisive blow. Gilgamesh shoved the saint hard however and opened her up, which Gilgamesh promptly took advantage of with a downward swing with Excalibur, one that certainly would have been fatal if it landed.

However, Touma slipped in-between them both and blocked the legendary blade with his right arm. The lights shining dwarfed even the shining sun, sparks and lights flew everywhere; it was as if reality itself was tearing at the seams. A sword of god and the ability that could defeat god were battling it out right then and there. The lights die down after a moment, and the legendary blade shattered.

"N-no way… even Excalibur can't-"

"**Nanasen."** A large array of nearly-invisible wires lashed outward from Kanzaki's sword, slashing the eight-armed man all over his body; the wires also cutting and destroying the other six weapons he wielded. Gilgamesh was forced backward several feet, and Mikoto blasted him with a full force of her electricity shortly after, launching him into a wall next to an alleyway. Despite the considerable damage done, Gilgamesh was still able to climb to his feet, and once again used his weapon regeneration to reform his broken weapons. Even Excalibur was affected, being returned to its previously impressive form.

"Come on… why you won't stay down!" Touma shouted.

"It's because I have no interest in losing! Why would I fight just to lose? If I haven't properly lost yet then I don't have a reason to stay down!" Gilgamesh replied.

"**Vampire Killing Cross" **An x-shaped flame erupted from the alleyway and hit Gilgamesh's side, the fire burning him and the force knocking him toward the middle of the street.

"W-why do these guys keep coming out of nowhere…!?" Gilgamesh lamented, touching his flame wounds.

"Touma!" Index ran full speed out of the alleyway toward the Imagine Breaker, with Stiyl following behind.

"You've gotten yourself into trouble again…" Stiyl remarked when approaching. Before they could converse further, a large explosion of wind was seen on top of one of the buildings. Enkidu flew down, landing next to her superior, still trying to disguise herself as a man. Kuroko suddenly appeared next to Mikoto.

"K-Kuroko! Are you alright?" Mikoto turned toward her roommate with concern.

"I am perfectly fine Onee-sama. But it does seem like I had failed to properly subdue the second hand." Kuroko replied. Gilgamesh glanced over to his partner, and receiving a nod, turned back toward the group.

"So… a party of six eh? Seems like I'm at a disadvantage… but that doesn't matter! I'll keep fighting till the bitter end!" Gilgamesh readied both himself and his weapons. Touma looked concerned, then annoyed.

"Your partner doesn't share that sentiment." Touma simply replied. Gilgamesh looked confused then looked to his side; Enkidu was gone, a small dust trail leading down the street.

"…Hey! If you're going to run away, tell me first!" Gilgamesh suddenly turned around and started down the street.

"You're not escaping." Stiyl gave chase, but the large eight-armed man pulled out an array of smoke bombs and tossed them, covering the area with a thick black cloud, allowing him to escape un-perused.

"Damn it… he got away." Stiyl cursed. Touma sighed, not in disappointment, but in relief.

"He's gone… and no one got hurt! That's good…" Touma looked genuinely relieved.

"It would have been better if we caught him." Kanzaki replied.

"I'm just glad no one got hurt… and that Dynamo won't suddenly appear out of nowhere and try to kill me." Touma replied.

"Dynamo?" Kanzaki asked. "Someone is trying to kill you?" Touma sighed.

"It's a long story…"

**-Undisclosed Location-**

"My my… your little distraction is proving to be a good one~" Dynamo, in much more casual attire, replied from behind a multi-monitored computer. On a desk beside him laid out the mechanical pieces of his armor, along with electrical repair equipment.

"How can you tell them from here?" Shurui asked.

"Apparently this little computer here is synced up to the entire network, including the security cameras! They must have thought very highly of it before the project that happened here went under…" Dynamo shrugged.

"…You know what you have to do from now on, right?" Shurui asked in a serious tone. Dynamo sighed.

"Right, right… no more Mr. nice Dynamo… it's going to be a pain to forcefully kill my innocent side though~"

"…You have an innocent side?"

"Maybe~"

"Whatever…" Shurui dismissed Dynamo's antics as the esper in question went typing away on the computer. "…Dynamo? You mentioned a project that was going on here. Do you know what it was?" Dynamo paused for a moment, and then turned around in his computer chair.

"...Do you know about digi-struct-tech, or more accurately, the DST project?" Dynamo asked.

"Not at all. What is it?" Shurui asked in a bored tone.

"Simply, it's an abbreviation for Digital Construction Technology; the act of creating physical mass from electronic data. They were trying to not only make physical objects, but also living creatures using mathematical equations and the like…"

"…Did it ever succeed?" Shurui asked curiously.

"Well… yes… and no… here; I have some downtime; I'll show you exactly what I mean." Dynamo hit a button on the keyboard of his computer, and behind the glass of the formally pitch-black room lit up into a mysterious and foreboding flicker of blue and yellow

* * *

**And there you go friends! Chapter 7 in is completeness... its probably my most action-heavy chapter so far.**

**So; like i said, here is the origins of Gilgamesh. Unlike Dynamo, who is heavily based on another existing character from a different series; Gilgamesh literally IS another existing character form a different series, Final Fantasy 5. In said game, Gilgamesh gets sucked into a cleft dimension known as the Rift, and in his attempts to escape, he winds up appearing in different dimensions. So, he just wound up in the toaru-verse, got stuck, and made himself at home... by stealing every single magical weapon he could get his hands on!**

**I hope you enjoyed Chapter 7... and I'm sure you all will love chapter 8. See you next time!**


	8. Revelations of the Heart

**So... I took a little risk with this one... i hope you all enjoy it! ^^**

* * *

"…So a magician is practicing a spell using a weaker version of it, and sending an esper by the name of Dynamo after you?" Stiyl summed up.

"Yeah… and I have the feeling that's not going to be the last time I have to explain that." Touma sighed.

"Now that you mention it… there was a theft of a Grimoire some time ago… but there were never any leads so the case had to be abandoned." Stiyl said.

"What Grimoire?" Index asked.

"I believe… it was the Book of Divinations" Stiyl answered.

"Magical knowledge and prophecy…" Index replied. "There is a spell related to altering reality in that book, but the effects are so unpredictable that you might end up making things worse than how they began. It's called **Endless Fiction. **The weaker version was based on it and similar principles would have to be **Memory Trick**."

"Endless Fiction and Memory Trick… they are testing the Memory Trick and researching its effects hoping that it will lead to being able to manipulate and control Endless Fiction how they want." Mikoto said.

"It's possible… they use the same basic principles, the only main difference is that Endless Fiction is much more powerful being able to wrap reality as a whole, while Memory Trick just affects the memory of living beings…" Index put a finger to her chin. "Also: Memory Trick is temporary, the afflicted will only be affected for approximately three days before returning to normal, but Endless Fiction is permanent; the only way to make changes to what Endless Fiction does is to re-cast the spell."

"But they are re-casting Memory Trick every day…" Touma thought out loud. "…Probably to get more results and to make sure their cover isn't blown."

"There might not be a casting tonight." Kanzaki interjected. "You said that the man named Dynamo recently had his arm broken. If the caster values her subordinate, she will more than likely be using healing magic to try and fix Dynamo's arm as soon as possible. She might not have the magical power to cast Memory Trick due to healing her subordinate."

"…So our real problem for now is Gilgamesh then… just who is he?" Mikoto asked.

"He is the leader of a thieves guild known as Big Bridge. Their main targets are magical artifacts, usually weapons, but they also venture out to other places to steal other weapons, including firearms on occasion." Stiyl replied.

"This Gilgamesh is such a buffoon… how hasn't this man been apprehended yet?" Kuroko asked.

"People who try wind up horribly injured… he is much stronger than he appears… there are even rumors going around that he isn't even human by any standard, rather some kind of demon." Kanzaki replied. "This is because it is said that a man known as Gilgamesh has been stealing such things for well over 1000 years."

"…He's no demon. I don't know what he is, but that can't be it." Touma said. "His men follow him with so much passion and faith, there is no way a demon could command people in such a way."

"Right now, we need to find a way to subdue him as a threat. I highly doubt that this will be that buffoon's last attempt at attacking." Kuroko said.

"Well… he's being pursued because he stole that sword Excalibur, right? Even if he can take down people to try and catch him, he probably doesn't like being followed or attacked. You could just say that if he stops his attempts that the warrant for his arrest will be voided." Mikoto said. "Might even be able to use the same thing as a bribe to give us any information about the magician and Dynamo; possibly even secure him and his men's cooperation in taking them down if we played our cards right. A reality-warping spell is probably more important than a stolen sword, right?"

"…We'd have to get authorization first." Stiyl explained. "That would require someone not only going back to Europe but convincing not only the church but the government of what's happening here and how severe it is. Even if we could convince them, the magician could cast Endless Fiction at any time; and Gilgamesh would still attack during those negotiations as well. Time is not on our side, we need a solution to get him to at least stop assaulting now."

"Is there any way we could reason with him?" Touma asked. His previous attempts failed, but aside from being able to best Gilgamesh in a violent fight, there didn't seem to be another option.

"Well… he supposedly thinks very highly of his subordinates, taking their thoughts and ideas into heavy consideration. But that path requires stealth and disguise, or somehow conning one of his subordinates into speaking on our behalf." Stiyl replied.

"…Or if one of us joined his guild." Touma added. "If one of us were to join his gang and explain to him what's going on and how it might even affect him; he might side with us anyway to secure his own safety."

"But who would be able to convince him to let any of us in…?" Index asked.

"…Well…" Touma started.

"No. No way." Mikoto interrupted. "You're not putting yourself on the spot like that!"

"H-hear me out first Misaka!" Touma replied. "He's definitely after the Imagine Breaker, right? He'd acknowledge that constant fighting would be a long and dangerous way to try and get the Imagine Breaker. So he might be willing to settle for having its user join his gang as a compromise. Once I'm in, I can try to convince him of what's happening."

"B-but still…"

"He is the only one out of anyone here with no ties to outside organizations." Stiyl lit a cigarette. "Strategically, if that's the plan we go with, he's the only one who can try it… the most we could do is hide in the shadows just in case proceedings go south…"

"Ugh… fine! But I still don't like it!" Mikoto shouted. "You better be careful then."

"Right… for what its worth; I don't like it either… but it's what has to be done." Touma replied. He sighed, but his head shot up suddenly remembering something. "…Hey Misaka? Sorry about today."

"Eh? What do you mean?"

"I mean I set up you to have a normal day with your friends, and I ended up dragging you away from it… so I'm sorry." Touma answered.

"Oh… it's fine." Mikoto replied. "It was nice that you tried… plus… I'm just glad I was able to help you this time." Mikoto blushed. Touma wasn't sure how to react. He looked confused, but nodded. He honestly expected a different kind of reaction based on his previous experiences with disappointing Mikoto.

"Well… if you say is it's fine…" Touma trailed off, still looking indecisive.

"Oh! That's right! Uiharu is still at Josephs. We should track her down and… at least try to explain everything… she was probably following the whole thing with the GPS camera…" Mikoto said.

"Can you take care of it? There is an urgent matter I need to take care of." Kuroko replied.

"Eh…?" Mikoto gave a confused look. "Well… alright then, don't take too long." Mikoto waved good bye and quickly went to meet Uiharu, thinking of how to possibly explain what happened.

"Good luck I guess…" Touma replied.

"You. Come with me." Kuroko tugged on Touma's arm, trying to lead him into an alleyway the moment Mikoto was out of sight.

"H-hey! Wait! Hold on a second!" Touma shouted, being dragged away.

"I just want to talk to you in private for a second~" Kuroko cheerfully replied.

"That makes me even more worried…" Touma sighed, leaving the remaining three to exchange confused glances. "Whatever it is that you want to do to me, just make it quick…"

"What's with you always assuming I'm going to hurt you…?"

"…You tried to stab me this morning." Touma replied.

"Never mind that~" Kuroko cheerfully said. "I need to talk to you about Onee-sama."

"Misaka? Is something wrong?" Touma replied with a concerned look.

"How do you feel about Onee-sama?"

"Huh? What kind of question is that?"

"Answer the question please~" Kuroko took out one of her needles, letting out a silent threat.

"Fine fine… I…" Touma trailed off, looking confused.

"What was that? I didn't quite hear you~"

"…How do I feel about Misaka?" Touma asked, leaning against a wall. "I haven't given that much thought… I really don't know I guess…"

"Would you like to know how she feels about you?" Kuroko asked.

"Sure, why not?" Touma shrugged. He thought it would be something like a punching bag or target or something along those lines.

"Onee-sama is hopelessly in love with you."

"…Say that again." Touma asked, giving another look of confusion. Kuroko sighed.

"Misaka Mikoto, the third ranked level five in the entire city, Ace of Tokiwadai, has fallen completely and totally in love with you."

"…Eh!?" Saying that Touma was completely surprised would be an understatement. "Y-you're joking with me, a-aren't you!?"

"I assure that I am not joking." Kuroko replied. "Didn't you notice that whenever you're around she blushes like mad? And how highly she thinks of you?"

"Y-yeah… but… she'd always try and attack me immediately afterward… I honestly thought I was just making her mad…" Touma replied slowly. "I… ugh… why are you bringing this up anyway? Don't you have some kind of crush on Misaka?"

"Oh yes; and I'd be more than happy to castrate you and dump the body in a ditch~" Kuroko answered with a smile, sending chills down Touma's spine. "But Onee-sama would be very upset if I did that… or if anything happened to you in general. I thought and honestly hoped that it was some sort of weird temporary attraction like a little crush… but it is more than apparent to me now that she has much deeper emotions for you."

"…S-so she likes me that much, huh…" Touma scratched his head, blushing at the thoughts going through his head. "Now I feel like an idiot; never noticing before."

"Oh, you are quite stupid; rest assured that your lack of intelligence is a rather obvious and truthful fact." Kuroko replied. "But Onee-sama is rather… reserved about her feelings for you most of the time. I highly doubted that she'd come clean about her feelings for you… so I decided to do it for her."

"….You're a good friend to her, you know that?" Touma smiled.

"If you break her heart, they will never find the body~" Kuroko said cheerfully.

"…Then I guess I just have to not break her heart. Simple as that." Touma replied. Kuroko was surprised at the response, but smiled anyway… with a certain thought in the back of her head.

Perhaps this ape of a man isn't so bad after all.

**-Touma's Apartment, One Hour Later-**

"Hey, what took you so long?" Mikoto asked as Touma walked inside. Index was inside as well, watching TV.

"Nothing… I just felt like taking a walk around town before coming back." Touma replied, keeping his conversation with Kuroko a secret.

"Alright… what's for dinner?" Mikoto asked. Touma went to his kitchen and started going through his cupboards, not finding much due to the return of the bottomless pit known as Index.

"I don't know… umm…" Touma trailed off. "What do you want? I don't have any ideas."

"W-what do I want…?" Mikoto blushed. "U-um… c-can we have t-that p-pasta from before?" Touma himself blushed, remembering what happened.

"Y-yeah sure… I actually wanted to make my special sauce for it. I haven't been able to make it in awhile…"

"…Y-y-you… c-can make that e-e-even b-better…!?" Mikoto's entire face lit up through several shades of red.

"W-well… I like it… but it looks like I'll have to go to the store again…" Touma gave a small glare over at Index, who glared back in response.

"M-mind if I come along too? N-not that I w-want to or anything, b-but that Gilgamesh g-guy could attack at a-any time! S-so I should be there to h-help!" Mikoto barely got out the words.

"Sure if you want. The store isn't very far from here though…" Touma replied. Their trip was rather quiet, each time one of the two would try and talk about something, the other would interrupt, and they'd both remain in silence. They bought the items Touma needed for his cooking and hastily returned home.

"That didn't take long…" Index commented.

"S-shut up…" Mikoto sit down next to the table, still looking flushed. Touma went to work cooking, and on occasion Mikoto would silently get up to watch. The pasta smelled as magnificent as before, but the real draw was coming from the pot of red paste next to it. It looked thick, but also smooth as Touma stirred it. He drained the liquid from the pasta and slowly mixed it in with the red sauce. It wasn't long before the pot was placed in the middle of the table, with three filled plates around it. Index, being a black hole that she is, immediately started to devour her portion, with Touma eating rather naturally and Mikoto just staring at the dish in front of her.

"What's wrong Misaka?" Touma asked.

"N-nothing…" Mikoto replied, blushing.

"Then why aren't you eating?" Touma asked. "…Do you want someone to feed you or something like that?"

"N-no! Of c-course not! D-don't be stupid!" Mikoto shouted. Her eyes drifted back down to the warm dish in front of her, and her blush intensified; what if that was an offer rather than just a simple question?

"Well… just eat your portion before Index decides to eat the rest."

"No thanks, I'm full." Index replied. Touma stopped mid-bite.

"…You're joking… right?" Touma actually looked afraid.

"No; I'm full. Can't eat another bite." Index replied.

"Are you sick? Did one of that guy's men do something to you!?" Touma looked on with genuine concern, putting his hand to Index's forehead to check for a fever.

Chomp.

"Such misfortune!" Touma was bitten, and hit his head on the floor due to the force of the bite.

"Serves you right! Stupid Touma." Index replied. "I'm gonna see what Maika is doing next door! Bye!" Index hastily exited the apartment.

"Be careful you idiot!" Touma shouted as the door to his apartment closed. Touma sighed, and then his attention drifted back to the silent Mikoto. "Hey… are you sure you're ok?"

"Y-y-yeah… I-I'm fine… j-just… trying to prepare myself…" Mikoto spoke quietly. Concerned, Touma moved next to her, making her blush harder. Slowly but surely, Mikoto lifted up a sauce-covered piece of the pasta and ate it whole… and then abruptly dropped her utensil, slapping the hand to her mouth to cover it; looking down and clutching her skirt tightly, her face lighting up in all kinds of red shades while her bangs covered her eyes.

"H-hey M-Misaka…? You still ok…?" Touma got no response. "I-if you don't like it, you don't need to be shy… you can just tell me." Slowly, Mikoto moved her hand from her mouth, which seemed to be quivering.

"T-T-Touma… I… I…!" She struggled to speak, her eyes closed and her face completely red. Touma took this as a unfavorable response to his special sauce... at least he did, until Mikoto abruptly shifted and more or less tackled him onto his back, locking lips with him. Touma froze in response to the sudden kiss; blushing himself. They remained this way for a good 30 seconds. Slowly, Mikoto opened her eyes and seemingly awoke from whatever possessed her, her eyes snapping open completely and abruptly jumping of him, landing on her butt.

"I-I-I-I'm s-s-so-sorry! S-sorry! I-I d-didn't m-m-mean t-to!" Mikoto's eyes were filled with fear, darting all around the room, trying to avoid contact. "I-I… i-it w-was j-j-just… s-s-so… g-g-good I…I… I…!" Mikoto fidgeted, emitting sparks of electricity as well, until Touma put his hands on her shoulders, stilling her. Mikoto's eyes locked with his at that moment; she was panting rather hard. She was scared; scared that she'd done something wrong, something she should have never done, and expected anger to follow. But that never came; Touma's eyes were just as soft and kind as they always were. He was blushing too, but smiling as well.

"Then eat… eat as much as you want. It is what you wanted, isn't it?" Touma said. Mikoto's eyes widened, and then darted away.

"B-but i-i-if I t-take another b-b-bite I'll…I'll…" She trailed off.

"I-I… I don't mind!" Touma replied, blushing harder. "I-It w-was r-really nice s-so… s-so I don't mind if you want to do it again!" Mikoto's eyes locked with his again. She was looking, feverously searching for any shred of doubt with what she just heard in the Imagine Breaker's eyes, but found no such thing. Her heart thumped loudly in her chest as the emotions she buried for so long had suddenly broken free. She locked lips with him again, as if testing if it was true, and got her answer as Touma kissed her back. Their lips brushed against each other for another 30 seconds, but with full knowledge of what was transpiring. Words weren't needed; the display was enough to convey how one another felt. When they finally parted, Mikoto gazed into Touma's eyes for a moment before speaking again.

"T-Touma…"

"Yeah…?"

"Y-you… you asked me if I w-wanted s-someone to f-feed me… w-w-what w-would you d-do if I s-said y-yes to that…?"

"Then I'd volunteer to do it." Touma simply replied. Mikoto looked surprised, but softened into a smile.

"D-do you u-understand what I s-said now…?" Mikoto asked. "Y-you truly are an amazing person…"

**-Next Day, Academy City Streets-**

Touma had been walking alone for awhile now. He hadn't been sure if he was being watched by his comrades or not, but that didn't matter. Slowly but surely, he started to be tailed by those men wearing the Bridge-bandanna. Eventually he stopped walking, letting the men surround him. Just as expected, the large man Gilgamesh, now back to using only two arms, and his partner, the female-in-hiding Enkidu, made their way through the group to the Imagine Breaker.

"So… you came to face me alone this time?" Gilgamesh questioned. "Why the sudden change in heart? Think you can topple me by yourself?"

"…Gilgamesh." Touma started. "There are things at work in this city that can't be allowed to progress. Things that can destroy you and your entire group; things that I am trying to put an end to. But I cannot do it alone… and I know you have no reason to believe a word I say as I am now… so…" Touma suddenly bowed. "Gilgamesh! Let me join your guild!"

"…Eh? Why the sudden desire to join me…?" Gilgamesh appeared genuinely confused.

"I need your help… you and your men… but I know you'd rather attack and steal my Imagine Breaker than listen to me now… that's why I want to enter a position where you will listen to me. So please, let me join!" Touma answered. Gilgamesh remained silent, but started to laugh.

"The man I've decided to rob… seeking to join me? And asking for assistance as well no less!" Gilgamesh laughed harder. "It's so… so surprising! So Unexpected! So… fresh!" Gilgamesh looked around to his associates. "What do you say boys!? Majority rules; does this man deserve the test!?" Gilgamesh's men screamed out with cheers of approval, while Touma remained confused.

"Test…? What kind of test…?"

"The test to all you to join me… the test to allow us to be comrades…" Gilgamesh reached into his back and draw Excalibur… or at least that what it somewhat looked like. Instead of a brilliant gold, it was a dark but shining blue.

"The test of Excalipoor! Hit me with this blade and we shall become comrades until death!"

* * *

**Here we are again... I'd like to take the opportunity to thank you for reading my story! Please, leave a review if you enjoyed it telling me what you thought. Yes, even negative comments are accepted; constructive criticism is the name of the game you know! Plus... I really want to hear peoples genuine thoughts on this chapter... thanks in advance! Have a nice day! ^^**


	9. A Duel With Gilgamesh

**And now things pick-up... have fun! ^^**

* * *

"Dynamo… what are you doing?" Shurui asked. Dynamo was walking around the large room with his full armor on.

"Oh, it's nothing. Just getting bored, so I thought I'd have some fun!" Dynamo replied, doing a little spin while Shurui rolled her eyes. "What about yourself~ you've been busy since I showed you the DST."

"I'm experimenting… by using science, they were able to form living beings… but they are limited to existing within this building… I'm trying to make it possible to change that by using their technology as a base." Shurui replied. The Book of Divinations was open, with notes sprawled all around.

"I see… what about memory trick?" Dynamo asked. Shurui shrugged.

"I have all the data I need… any further casting won't assist us. I'll cast it again before Endless Fiction, but I'm not sure how much that will help. For now I'm just experimenting."

"Endless Fiction could be used anytime you know if you got it all figured out~" Dynamo commented.

"…You know that if it works how I want it to, I'll be eliminated as well. If I can make this work; I can change it so my discovery is known and it may possibly benefit everyone; the ability to permanently make items and living beings out of nothing… it will be for the better." Shurui replied.

"Good point. I was just offering an idea, just in case you haven't thought about it…" Dynamo replied. "…You don't have to die, you know. You could use Endless Fiction and make yourself an exception."

"I can't do that… by doing this I will be killing millions… it may be for the better but I'll still be killing… it may not be much, but it will be a small form of atonement…" Shurui replied. Dynamo frowned, and then his visor slid down to cover his eyes and turned around.

"…I'll be back later. If you do decide to use it… please wait for me; I want to bid farewell properly." Dynamo spoke quietly.

"What's wrong? Gotten rather attached have we? That's so out of character for you…" Shurui jokingly replied. The Plasma Caster however didn't reply. Shurui looked confused, and then looked down with a pained look.

"…Sorry for the depressing moment." Dynamo looked back with a small smile. "Your invincible Dynamo will return to see your smiling face. So please, even if it's for the last time; smile for me, ok?"

**-Academy City Streets-**

"Test of Excalipoor…? What are you talking about?" Touma asked, eyeing the blue blade Gilgamesh was holding.

"The weakest blade to ever exist, completely unable to deal but the slightest bits of damage to whatever it strikes… do not worry; only the blade is magical… the rest of it is fair game," Gilgamesh flipped Excalipoor and caught its blade, holding the handle out to Touma. Hesitantly, Touma grabbed the handle with his right arm, and true to Gilgamesh's word, it didn't break. He gripped the handle with both of his hands, taking it out of Gilgamesh's hands; it was heavier than he expected.

"What… is the purpose of this test?" Touma asked staring the blade down.

"If you can strike me with the weakest of all weapons, then it proves your skill and ability!" Gilgamesh replied, drawing the real Excalibur. "Excalipoor is just a shadow of Excalibur; I wonder how they will fare against one another…"

"So all I have to do is hit your body with this then…?" Touma asked.

"Yes sir! It doesn't matter how or where; it just has to make contact with my body. You can try as many times as you like, and use any tactics you choose… but keep in mind, once you give up, it's all over for you…" Gilgamesh replied.

"…If that is what I have to do to get you to listen to what I have to say…" Touma griped Excalipoor in his hands tightly. He suddenly brought the blade over his head and swung down onto Gilgamesh. The armored-man blocked the swing with Excalibur; the clang of steel ringing in the street as the blades met.

"The direct route won't work with that sword." Gilgamesh shoved Touma back easily. Touma came back and slashed sideways, unevenly due to not being used to the weight of the sword, but Gilgamesh blocked again. Touma spun around for a slash from the otherwise, but that too, met steel. Gilgamesh lifted up his foot and kicked Touma in the stomach, knocking him onto his back. The Imagine Breaker got up however and immediately went back to trying to strike the large armored man. They exchanged slashes over and over, but Touma could not even get close to breaking Gilgamesh's guard. Not too far away, Mikoto hid, watching the conflict unfold.

"Touma…" Mikoto looked on at the Imagine Breaker trying again and again to strike Gilgamesh. Her mind was still flooded with the memories of the night before. She was worried; she wanted to jump in and help, but she knew that this fight was strictly a one versus one, and that her interference would ruin the whole thing. So she watched closely, a frown on her face, worried over the man she loved.

"He will be fine. The Imagine Breaker isn't something that can be just taken…" Mikoto turned around to see Stiyl standing behind her, lighting up one of his many cigarettes. "And Kamijou Touma isn't the kind of monster that can be killed with a sword."

"…He isn't a monster." Mikoto replied.

"You haven't seen it then, have you?" Stiyl asked. Mikoto shook her head no, and then Stiyl walked over beside her. "I see… that's probably for the best. I don't want to see it again either."

"What are you talking about?" Mikoto gave him a suspicious look.

"…Even if this Gilgamesh were to win and to slice of that monster's arm, he would still lose." Stiyl replied. "Let's just say that cutting off Kamijou Touma's arm isn't the best idea…" Mikoto was about to ask, but the sound of a thud; Touma had once again been knocked to the ground again.

"You're not done yet, are you?" Gilgamesh asked with a hardy laugh.

"Not even close!" Touma shot up and slashed, the blade being blocked.

"It would be easier if you just let me take your arm… why are you fighting so hard?" Gilgamesh asked, holding off Excalipoor with one arm on his own blade.

"Because… there is someone important that is struggling right now. Someone being constantly tormented… by a fake reality that has been created! And in order to save that important person, I'm going to shatter that illusion that they cling to!" Touma shouted back… and Gilgamesh's feet moved back from the conflict.

"What's this…?" Gilgamesh's hand was being pushed back by a sudden force, making him to fend off Excalipoor with both of his arms placed firmly on Excalibur. 'Before… Excalipoor wasn't making any kind of impact at all… and suddenly its pushing me back…!?' Gilgamesh thought. 'Is this some kind of hidden strength of that shadow of a sword… or is the Imagine Breaker evoking its will on it, making it a normal sword…!?' Gilgamesh shoved Touma back, but he came forward again, striking once more. But this time; Gilgamesh's guard was forced open by the blade, but Gilgamesh blocked the following strike with another weapon drawn from his back; the large brown broadsword. 'Either way… he is making the weakest of all swords able to strike… what is this man!?' Gilgamesh was getting excited. He slammed Excalibur down onto Touma, who blocked it. The difference was clear; before Excalipoor could do nothing at all, but now it was applying forces and could withstand attacks.

"Looks like such a worthless sword is giving you a little trouble…" Touma said, holding off the blade. While Excalipoor suddenly became something somewhat above useless; Gilgamesh was still physically tougher than Touma.

"Heh, this has just gotten interesting!" Gilgamesh pressured Touma more. "Making even the weakest of all blades able to conflict with his king of all swords…!" Touma slipped out of Gilgamesh's blades, rolling to the side. The armored man lifted up his blades and slammed them down on Touma again; the target quickly shifting out of harm's way. Touma quickly got to his feet and swung upward toward Gilgamesh. The armored man dodged the strike and brought his own blade up to Touma's the collision disarming the Imagine Breaker. Excalipoor flew high into the air, spinning, as a hard shove from Gilgamesh forced Touma to the ground.

"Just as I thought… that man doesn't even hold a candle to Sir Gilgamesh's skill." Enkidu commented with a confident stare.

"End of this round; do you want to try again?" Gilgamesh asked, aiming Excalibur down at Touma. The Imagine Breaker looked up with disappointment, but suddenly confidence.

"We're not done yet. It doesn't end until I give up, remember?" Touma replied.

"Very true… but you are disarmed. How do you intend to turn this around?" Gilgamesh laughed. Suddenly, there was as a soft 'dink,' sound. What happened was completely unexpected, while this earned some noises of surprise from the crowd of thieves, if left Touma's allies completely flabbergasted.

Excalipoor's blade abruptly fell blade first onto Gilgamesh's head; the blade actually piercing Gilgamesh's helmet, standing straight up. Something LUCKY happened by pure chance to Kamijou Touma, the man who attracts nothing but misfortune.

"You said it yourself…it doesn't matter how, the blade just has to make contact, right?" Touma sighed. Gilgamesh put his large broadsword away and pulled Excalipoor out of his helmet and he walked forward silently. "…Right…!?" Touma appeared worried as suddenly the large armored man stood over him… and abruptly picked Touma up, and put him into a rather bone-crushing hug with a loud hardy laugh.

"Yup! That's the rule! Making use of a technicality to secure your victory… that is what I like to see!" Gilgamesh laughed again.

"T-then… c-could you stop crushing me p-please…!?" Touma barely managed to let out the words as Gilgamesh let go, putting his hands on Touma's shoulders.

"You not only were able to make use of Excalipoor, you made it strike me in the most unusual way; if that was a powerful blade or even some other kind of weapon, your opponent would be dead before you." Despite such dark words, Gilgamesh's voice displayed nothing but joy. "Kamijou Touma… you pass! Welcome to the Big Bridge!" Cheers of approval followed from the crowd of fellow thieves.

"Way to go! That's how it's done!"

"Finally! A new guy! It's been a while!"

"You lucky little bastard! Welcome to the guild!" The last one struck a chord with Touma.

"W-wait… I… got lucky…?" Touma said. The act of getting lucky would be a god-send especially in this situation. But to Touma, any form of good luck was normally followed by an act of immeasurable bad luck. And considering everything that has been happening these days… such a thing was very likely, even more so due to the events of the night before.

"Hey… you ok?" One of the thieves asked. Touma looked like he had just seen a ghost that had tried to kill him.

"…Such misfortune." Was the only thing Touma could say.

"Touma!" Mikoto forced her way through the crowd followed by Stiyl. "Y-you're not hurt, right?"

"Yeah… I'm fine." Touma replied.

"Thank goodness…" Mikoto sighed in relief… and then fired off electricity at Touma. "You're never doing something like this again!"

"C-calm down Biri-Biri! Such misfortune!" Touma held up his right hand to block the electricity while Gilgamesh laughed hardily.

"Ah! Young love! It's been so long since I've seen such innocence!" Mikoto and Touma stopped in place, both sides blushing. They were still very new to such expressions of feelings, despite theirs being mutual.

"Get on with it already, time is short you know." Stiyl said, snapping Touma out of his trance.

"R-right… Gilgamesh? Will you listen to what I have to say now?" Touma asked.

"Of course! Let us have a manly discussion of men!" Gilgamesh replied.

"Ok… first of all: the Imagine Breaker IS my right hand! It's not some kind of fused weapon or ANYTHING like that! I was born with it, and I've had it even since! It's NOT a weapon!" Touma said again. Gilgamesh crossed his arms with an annoyed huff.

"Oh alright fine…" The armored man replied.

"Second… you and your men are in danger." Touma looked serious.

"What do you mean?" Gilgamesh asked with interest. Touma was about to start explaining, but what looked like a red dot from a laser sight appeared on Gilgamesh's chest at an angle, and it slowly rose to his head. Enkidu saw this as well, and promptly pushed Gilgamesh out of the way… a single loud rifle firing a round as the same time, the bullet apparently piercing Enkidu's side. She rolled along the ground due to the force of the shot, the red scarf around her head unravelling as she did, revealing a feminine face with long curly brown hair. She stopped rolling on her side as Gilgamesh got his balance back.

"Enkidu… what was that for!?" Gilgamesh turned around, oblivious to the assault until he saw Enkidu's wound. "E-Enkidu…? A-are you alright…!?" He rushed to her side, checking her wound. "Oh no… no no no… Enkidu… Enkidu!" He shoulder loudly, holding his fallen comrade in his arms. "Who… who did this…!?" He shouted loudly into the air. Touma looked toward where he thought the shot came from… and gave an angry serious look. Dynamo was standing on the edge of a building, holding what looked like a large rifle.

"Oops… I missed…" Dynamo said with a smile. "And I've been spotted… I really need to get better at those Metal Gear games to practice my stealth…" Mikoto turned to Dynamo with a look of pure anger.

"You just crossed the line you bastard…!" Mikoto enveloped herself in electricity and fired it all off toward Dynamo's location.

"Time to go! See you all in the next level!" Dynamo threw the gun into the stream of electricity; the gun taking the hit and exploding. When the smoke cleared, the Plasma Caster had vanished. Mikoto was about to run after him but Touma stopped her.

"Hold on a moment…" Touma said, nudging toward Gilgamesh. Some of his subordinates surrounded their master.

"Come on boss… it'll be fine! She has taken worse hits!"

"Yeah! Like when we ran into that guy who liked to drop steamrollers on people!"

"Remember boss? She is Enkidu of the White Healing Wind! She can fix herself up in no-time!" Gilgamesh still looked saddened.

"I…I didn't even know Enkidu was a girl…" He laid her down gently as Stiyl approached him from behind.

"If she means that much to you… I can heal her." Stiyl said, catching Gilgamesh's attention. "I can spare some time to heal her if you go after that man… he is involved with this whole thing. The danger you and your associates are in and you even being here in the first place." Slowly, Gilgamesh stood up, and walked until he was in-between his followers, and then started to speak.

"Men… me and you all have been through a lot… even more assassins then even world leaders have to deal with… so tell me! What do we do to every man who try's and kill one of us!?"

"We kick their ass and send them packing back to their momma!"

"And is there ANY reason that this should be treated any differently!?"

"Sir, no sir!"

"So! What are we going to do to this iron-clad jackass who thinks he can try and kill anyone from the Big Bridge and get away with it!?"

"Make him feel the pain he caused ten times over!"

"So what the hell are we waiting for then!? Track this guy down and whoever the fuck he may be working for, and give them a kind of welcome to pain that only we can bring him!" Loud cheers of approval roared as the thieves of Big Bridge dispersed, running in different directions trying to track down the esper known as Dynamo while Stiyl began a healing spell for Enkidu. Gilgamesh turned toward Touma. "When… when this is resolved, whether or not that guy escapes; I want to know everything you know about this, understood?" Touma nodded.

"Of course… I was going to tell you about it anyway."

**-Nightfall, Parking Lot-**

"I came out for a little fun and ended up being chased all over town… least this game isn't boring." Dynamo commented. He was hiding behind a car; waiting for about three of Gilgamesh's men to leave the area before slipping away. He didn't need to wait long however, as they quickly left to try and get to their next target. "My sneak skill is so inconsistent… sometimes I get away scot free other times it feels like I'm in the open… oh well. It's time to escape before I'm caught again!" Dynamo stood up and walked to an alleyway back exit. There was a large truck in the way, but such a thing was no problem for Dynamo… at least it didn't seem like it was; until a bolt of lightning struck it, causing it to explode. "…I think I get it. I can only hide from non-essential characters… to what do I owe this pleasure Misaka-san?" Dynamo turned around to face the Railgun who was standing a distance behind him.

"You don't have any right to say my name." Mikoto replied. "You went way to far this time."

"Ah… but if all goes according to plan, a lot more will be dying than just that chimera-girl… yet another science experiment… I wonder how that big lug Gilgamesh met her~ it must have been a very creative encounter… I wonder if bullets could even kill such a fabricated creature~" Dynamo replied in his usual joyous tone. Mikoto's only reply was to send a bolt of lightning just past Dynamo's head, just barely missing.

"Enough of your stunts, Dynamo! One way or another, this ends tonight!" Mikoto shouted; a loud boom of thunder following her statement.

* * *

**And cliffhanger... I hope you all enjoyed it, see you all next time!**


	10. Mistake

**Kinda lacking Author's note here... enjoy the chapter. ^^**

* * *

"No time to play around huh?" Dynamo asked, cheery as ever. His received response was Mikoto magnetizing the car she just destroyed and to draw it toward her, causing it to smash right into Dynamo's back. The Plasma Caster formed an explosive plasma blast that destroyed the car's remains, and used the propulsion to try and punch Mikoto, who dodged, causing Dynamo's fist to pierce right through the side of a truck. "So violent today… you make it sound like someone just died~"

"Shut up." Mikoto fired off a large stream of electricity, and Dynamo responded with a wave of plasma. The clash subsided; and Dynamo removed his arm from the truck's side.

"You might want to give up now… I know you feel compelled by your own tough words… but you can't retire me no matter how much you try." Dynamo grinned. Mikoto discharged electricity again, and Dynamo blocked it with another blast of plasma. But this time when the clash subsided, Mikoto was out of sight. Dynamo was about to walk away when a railgun blast tore through the truck next to him, just barely missing him. "…Too close… way too close."

"If you're getting scared just because of this, it's going to get a whole lot worse from here," Mikoto ran electricity through the ground up into Dynamo's body, electrocuting him.

However, this was just a distraction, as a large swirl of iron sand burst form the ground and started to gather itself around the Railgun. She formed it into a thick blade and launched it toward Dynamo, who could only block by making a sword of Plasma to cut through it. This, however, didn't put an end to the attack, as the iron sand reformed behind the Plasma Caster, smashing right into his back, slicing up the non-armored pieces. Dynamo rolled to the side after the impact, noticing the iron sand was chasing him, and forced it to disperse with a plasma blast, kicking up a cloud of iron sand and dust, covering the area.

"You are dangerous when you're pissed off, little girl…" Dynamo commented.

A bolt of lightning struck him and lunched him into another car. After the impact, Dynamo smashed his fist into the car's side, and used his mecha-suit's strength to lift it up and hurled it at Mikoto, who quickly blasted it with electricity, forcing it to explode; lowering visibility even further. The Plasma Caster took his chances and tried to retreat, but shortly after he started to move, a hand grasping his stopped him.

"Where are you going…? We are just getting started…!" Mikoto ran her full electric current through Dynamo's body, refusing to let go as Dynamo could only cry out in pain.

Mikoto just kept railing up the voltage and current, increasing it every second. Her rage was boiling, and it wasn't long before she snapped; a large bolt of lightning fell from the sky and struck the parking lot with a loud boom, causing the remaining vehicles to explode due to the impact.

**-Touma's Location-**

"What was that!?" Touma shouted. "It sounded like… thunder. But there's not a cloud in the sky…"

"…There is one over there. It's just a single one though, but its big and dark looking..." Gilgamesh pointed. Touma saw it, and saw it sparking as well; it didn't take long for Touma to figure out who caused that thunderclap.

"Misaka…" Touma said quietly. "Gilgamesh, wait for me; I'm going to go see if Misaka is ok! If I'm not back within 20 minutes, come and find me, ok?"

"Gotcha… just take care; I don't want anything to happen to my newest comrade!" Gilgamesh pounded his chest. "You are in with the Big Bridge now, so you are under my protection as well! If anyone ever messes with you, just let me know!"

"R-right. I'll keep that in mind…" Touma replied. He was about to take off when his phone started to ring. "Hello?"

"Savior; Misaka says as a greeting." It was one of the Misaka sisters; probably 10032. "Is Onee-sama alright? Her phone refuses to connect; Misaka says worriedly."

"…I think I know why her phone isn't working." Touma replied. "Whatever you need to tell her, you can say to me; I'll be sure to deliver the message. I'm on my way to see her anyway."

"It's about the predicament she is in; Misaka explains. We believe we have located the one orchestrating it all; Misaka finished promptly"

"Really? But… how? It's only been a few days…" Touma replied.

"It's the head of Academy City; Aleister Crowley; Misaka answers."

**-Mikoto's location-**

"Your lightning… really hurts…" Dynamo replied, climbing to his feet. Or at least he tried to; a sudden electrical shock stopped him as he was on one knee.

"You should stay down…" Mikoto replied. "If you be nice and comply, Mikoto-sensei might not hurt you as bad."

"Does that mean if little Dynamo is really good, he can go out and play extra long~?" Dynamo replied.

"…Why are you doing this?" Mikoto asked. "Helping this plan to change reality, attacking Touma, trying to kill that Gilgamesh… just why are you doing all of this?"

"Who knows… maybe I want a little pay back for something done… maybe I really like this girl and I wanna impress her… maybe I want to see if I can transcend into god-hood… or maybe I just wanna destroy everything for shits and giggles!" This response earned Dynamo an electrically-charged kicking right in the jaw, knocking him onto his back.

"Stop trying to give me the run around!" Mikoto shouted. "Trying to kill people… just to avenge that friend of yours who died!" Dynamo didn't try to stand, choosing to lay on the ground.

"…Ah, Gate." Dynamo replied. "That's right… that is something I can never forgive..."

"What happened…?" Mikoto asked.

"We were approached by one of the directors… offering us huge sums of money to re-design our mech-suits into unmanned attack drones; saying that they'd be funding us enough to be able to work on both projects at once." Dynamo started. "But, Gate upfront refused. He's never been fond of the directors' board you see; project IMPULSE was independently funded. But the guy didn't like that kind of response… he had gotten someone to hack the code of a new suit design we were working on without us knowing… and Gate went to test it, like usual. The thing went berserk; completely outside of the operator's control… and the ejection button wasn't working. EMP's wouldn't work; we designed all of our suits against such counter measures… so the only option was to damage the suit to the point where it would automatically shut down but… doing such a thing would kill the pilot..."

"So… in order to stop the suit from possibly getting out into the public…"

"Yup; I volunteered to take him down, donning this very suit." Dynamo answered. "That was so long ago… it's why I don't like being here, ya know."

"Isn't that also why you're doing all of this, for revenge?" Mikoto asked. Dynamo laughed.

"I got that a looooong time go!" Dynamo replied. "The nameless hacker… well; let's just say as far as public is concerned, he will remain nameless…" He let that settle for a moment, making it rather easy to figure out what became of the aforementioned man. "…And the director whose name escapes me got caught when a bunch of money randomly went missing~ it was almost like he was set up!"

"…You stole the money and framed him, knowing that he'd be charged and sent to prison… more than likely for the rest of his life." Mikoto summed up. The Plasma Caster nodded.

"So; that's that! The bad guys got punished, and Gate's dream of project IMPLUSE was completed. After that, I took this suit and skipped town. And a few years later, I wind up coming back. That's my story arc~" Dynamo finished. "Before you ask, IMPULSE is a code word, but it's just a bunch of nonsensical words so Gate could call it IMPLUSE; he was rather weird like that."

"But then why… why are you doing all of this!? If it's not for revenge, then what is driving you!?" Mikoto shouted.

"…You're not the only girl who has faced the cruelty of this world, you know." Dynamo replied. Mikoto was about to reply but a blast of plasma shout out at her; forcing her to use her electricity to block. Dynamo used the opportunity to jump back to his feet and leapt out at Mikoto with a blade of plasma. The Railgun dodged the attack, the blade slicing right through the metal remains of a vehicle. Mikoto rolled to the side to make distance away from the Plasma Caster. "If you thought this was all done juuuust because we had a little chat; you're dead wrong, Misaka-san."

"Tell me why you're trying to change this world!" Mikoto shouted.

"This world is wrong… so much darkness!" Dynamo replied. "This world has so much suffering, so much evil… so much death. She wants to change that, and I will be her instrument of change."

"Her…?" Mikoto asked, confused. She realized who he was referring to after a moment. "You're not the one who wants all this to happen… it's the magician! And you're just along for the ride!"

"Along for the ride? Close… I want to see that woman's dream become a reality… a world without evil… were innocent people won't have to die anymore."

"But if you change everything, some innocent people will be killed too!"

"Acceptable losses," Dynamo simply replied with a shrug.

"What kind of response is that!? Innocent people will die!" Mikoto shouted.

"But more evil will be killed than good; with all evil gone, no one will be manipulated… no control through money, power, ability, or social status! People won't be forced to kill each other just to avoid being killed themselves! The human race will finally become something of value, not just a bunch of apes that live to kill!" Dynamo replied with a cheery smile; it was like all of this was easy for him to do.

"An outcome like that… would be nice." Mikoto replied. "But… for it to cost even a single innocent life is unacceptable!"

"The ends don't justify the means argument? Don't give me that~" Dynamo replied.

"Lives are special… and you don't have the right to decide who lives and who dies! Until you can give me a solution where death isn't necessary, I'll stake everything on the world we have now."

"Ah… but why? You know from personal experience how this world could be fixed by removing certain factors~"

"Because this brutal world gave birth to the kindest, most caring person I have ever met! The kind of guy who will step and save you, even if you don't ask! Who will jump head first into the darkness to pull you out of it! Who will fight tooth and nail just so you can have a happy ending, even if he himself doesn't get one! A world where such a person can't be allowed to exist isn't worth living in!" Mikoto shouted to the world. Silence followed as her words sank in. Moment after moment, silence. Dynamo frowned, looking down.

"…I'm sorry."

"Sorry for what?" Mikoto asked. Dynamo looked genuinely depressed.

"I'm sorry that I can't join you on that path." Dynamo looked up; appearing serious for the first time during the entire time they've known each other, not even the slightest hint of a ruse. "I'm sorry that you got dragged into this… you deserve better; a better fate than this fight."

"What are you going on about?" Mikoto looked confused.

"This path I'm on… this path with her; it isn't something I can abandon… I cannot afford to see her cry like that again. Someone like that who always ended up being betrayed… I refuse to be another link in that chain for her. So I will stand my ground here, and fight for what she desires until the bitter end." Dynamo replied, raising his right hand up in the air. Mikoto was going to say something, but a bright energy formed around it. "I am sorry for what I must do… **Earth Gaizer."** Dynamo slammed his hand into the ground and the energy vanished. Just like his previous use, the sky started to rain a seemingly endless barrage of plasma blasts. They bombarded the parking lot, each one violently exploding on impact. Over and over they struck, it seemed like an eternity. However, the endless explosions did cease after a time. In the smoke, Dynamo stood, letting out a heavy sigh.

He really did not want to do any of this. All this senseless violence, but if the world will improve, he would be more than willing to cause it. Endless Fiction would slay him too; this was certain. But in his mind, he preferred it like this. To go down as the villain, while the hero does what needs to be done. Dynamo turned to leave when he heard a spark, followed by a large blast of electricity, knocking him backward.

"If you thought such a weak attack could kill me… then you're wrong!" Mikoto stood in the smoke a sit cleared. She was obviously hurt, but no open wounds, sparks flying from her bangs. Dynamo clicked his teeth in disappointment; he had hoped that this was over. "You know a thing or two about me… but did you know that I can fire off other things besides coins!?"

"Shit..!" Dynamo quickly put up his right hand and fired off a wave of plasma, but it was too late. Using magnetism, she brought a large chunk of steel on the ground in front of her up and hit it; launching the massive piece of steel in a much larger version of her Railgun. The attacks clashed, and the railgun quickly started to gain ground, prompting the Plasma Caster to add his second hand into the clash, the twin blast of plasma holding off the Railgun blast rather evenly. "What's wrong? Your upgraded Railgun is only able to match my plasma~"

"I'm not weak." The Railgun pushed forward a little. "I'm not some sad little girl who needs to be coddled… but he stands up for me anyway, jumping into trouble. So I will stand tall, and transform from a person protected by him into someone who can help him protect others! So that I can make his dreams come true! And Dynamo… you are NOT going to stand in the way of that!" Slowly but surely, the Railgun began to pierce the plasma blast, until the blast completely dispelled the plasma retraining it. Dynamo's only response was to cover himself in a shell of plasma and put up his arms to block; the shell only served to slow down the impact slightly as the Railgun blast slammed right into him, blasting him right through a wall of a building, that collapsed shortly after. Mikoto stood there for a time, just looking. Dynamo let out no cry of pain, no grunt, nothing. He was completely silent when the blast hit him. Mikoto sighed lightly as she heard footsteps coming closer. When she looked, she saw Touma approaching; he slowed down, panting, when he got close.

"S-sorry I'm late…" Touma said. "What… exactly happened?" Mikoto looked off toward the rubble.

"I fought Dynamo." Mikoto simply replied, turning her head back toward Touma.

"And… you won?" Touma asked, receiving a nod. He let out a relieved sigh. "Thank god… I was worried about you…"

"You don't need to, idiot." Mikoto replied.

"Doesn't matter; I care about you, so how could I not worry at least a little?" Touma replied. Mikoto smiled in response.

"Touma…" Mikoto was about to speak, but Touma looked up, appearing serious. She wanted to ask, but a hard blow came to the side of her neck, and consciousness quickly left her as she fell over.

"Misaka!" Touma shouted as she fell over. "You-" He received a powerful knee to his stomach, knocking him backward.

"That last attack… almost… did me in…" Dynamo said. His armor was damaged, his hair was messy, and blood seemed to be trickling down from his mouth and nose. Before Touma could react, Dynamo lunged with a sword of plasma. But he wasn't going for the kill… he was targeting Touma's right arm. The blade sliced right through Touma's shoulder, whose body suddenly went limp after the attack. The Plasma Caster grabbed Touma by the head and threw him aside; panting as he did so. The Imagine Breaker's body rolled lifelessly along the ground before slowing down. "Well… shit. No turning back now…" Dynamo scratched the back of his head, and turned his attention back to Mikoto.

"You technically won that little scrap… I went down hard…" Dynamo slowly started to walk to the unconscious girl. "…I meant it, ya know. Not wanting to do this; to cause you this much pain… but if the world can be changed for the better… I'm sorry."

Dynamo stood over the Railgun's unconscious form. "I don't expect forgiveness… but the least I can do is make sure it's painless. It's the only kind of mercy I can give right now." He raised up his right arm; wielding a blade of plasma. "This… is the end. Just like you said it was." He swung quickly, sure that the quick strike would do the deed.

But he was wrong.

Suddenly, a hand came from behind and grabbed his wrist, holding him in place. Dynamo wasn't surprised by this, oh no; it was obviously Kamijou Touma. What surprised him that there was a shattering sound, and his plasma sword vanished… despite Dynamo being sure that he cut off Touma's right arm. Dynamo slowly turned his head… and his face suddenly turned to horror. It was Kamijou Touma alright, his spiky hair covering his eyes but he also saw… what looked like a bloody dragon's head now in the place of the arm he had just severed.

"Hey… Plasma Caster!" Touma called out, his mouth quickly turning to a wide grin. "You didn't think that you could get rid of my Imagine Breaker that easily, did you…?" A loud dragon's roar filled the sky… along with a blood curdling scream.

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**Chapter 10 is one of my personal favorites... as is chapter 11, which you all will see next... and then understand. Till then, bye bye! Leave a review and tell me how I'm doing! ^^**


	11. Dragon King

**And here we are... my personal favorite chapter... Sorry for its lack of length, but for this one, it is intentional, and i hope it is made clear as to why... enjoy! ^^**

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"W-what… what the hell are you…!?" Dynamo stammered, gripping his upper-left arm with his right hand. Blood dripped down slowly from his left arm, and just below his shoulder, there bore three holes; Three tooth-shaped, bloody holes. Touma kept his wide grin, and cocked his head to the side.

"What's wrong? You were talking big not too long ago." Touma replied, slowly walking toward Dynamo; his dragon arm snarling. The Plasma Caster slowly stepped backwards, keeping his distance.

"Answer my question!" Dynamo shouted back. Touma started to laugh.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" His dragon arm blinked once, and seemed to be staring right into Dynamo's soul. "Let's just say Kamijou Touma is not here at the moment. Do you want to leave a message? I'll make sure that he gets it."

"Sure… I got an important one…" Dynamo threw out his right hand and fired a massive wave of plasma energy, large enough to enveloped Touma's form. The smoke crated from the attack covered the area as Dynamo panted in exhaustion. A hand burst from the smoke and grabbed Dynamo's arm.

"Not much of a message… I didn't quite hear it; could you please repeat it?" Touma grinned, completely unharmed. In terror, Dynamo panicked and kicked Touma hard in the stomach, surprisingly knocking him away. Though distance was good, Touma slowly rose back to his feet after the kick, much to Dynamo's dismay.

"Just what the hell… what the FUCK are you!?" Dynamo shouted.

"Who knows… maybe I'm just one of those demons you're trying to kill with that woman..."

"How the hell… did you know that…!?"

"I didn't."

"Are you fucking with me…!?" Dynamo was getting visibly angry, the emotion mixing in with his own fear. Touma started to laugh.

"When it's so much fun, how can I not!?" Touma threw his head back, laughing into the sky. "Isn't that how you've been conducting yourself this whole time? Could have killed me so many times… the table sure is turned around now though!"

"So what… you're the culmination of all my failures or something?" Dynamo shot back.

"Doubtful… this is the third or fourth time I've been let out... though only the second time I was able to have some fun. Just think of me as the fuck up that ended your life!"

Touma suddenly lunged with his dragon-head forward, and Dynamo quickly rolled to the side. Plasma Caster wouldn't work at all here, as if the Imagine Breaker was now Kamijou Touma's entire body; his plasma would vanish before even reaching its target. But there was still one advantage he had; physical strength. Thinking for a moment, Dynamo calmed down; this wasn't too different from fighting Touma normally, avoid relying on esper powers was all he needed to do. Behind him, the charred remains of some kind of vehicle laid on its side, obviously knocked over due to the clash between him and Mikoto. He quickly turned and lifted up the destroyed vehicle and chucked it as hard as he could at Touma. Much to the Plasma Caster's horror, however, Touma's dragon-head rose up and caught the smouldering scrap heap in its jaws, and promptly crushed it with a painfully loud snap. The steel remains fell just as fast as Dynamo's confidence in victory.

"What… how..." He was at a loss for words, slowly taking steps backward.

"Steel doesn't taste that good…" Touma said. "Plus it was charred black, which made it even worse."

"What the hell kind of comment is that…?" Dynamo asked.

"Doesn't matter, I was just talking to myself… I'm surprised you care." Touma replied. "Now… is it my turn yet? Or do you still want to try and kill me…?"

"…What ARE you!? What the fucking hell are you!?" Dynamo shouted. Touma grinned widely.

"A being that was born to kill God." Touma said.

"What the hell does that mean!?" Dynamo shouted.

"It means exactly what you think it means… do you know how hard it is to do, by the way? Thousands of years of being manipulated for every single thing these annoying little humans could think of, finally finding myself inside a living body… only to be sharing it with something more powerful than me… I could have figured out how to find and kill him by now if it wasn't for that."

"So… there are three beings inside of you…?" Dynamo asked hesitantly.

"Kamijou Touma… who is unconscious… and the other… well… let's just say that for once we share the same opinion on what should be done to you." Touma grinned wide. "And so here I am, the third one… here to have my fun!" Dynamo could only stare, dumbfounded and frightened in what he had uncovered, and he could only curse himself for letting it loose. He was willing to kill Mikoto, despite his objections, but not Touma, and that is what sealed his fate. This… monster possessing this poor teenager was his own fault, and could only imagine what kind of mental turmoil was happening during all of this.

"…I'm starting to wonder who the true final boss of this story is…" Dynamo said with a chuckle.

"Be happy; it's a fact that it's not going to be you." Touma replied with a snicker.

"Well then… you want me dead… so let's push aside the bullshit banter and see who takes the cake." Dynamo managed to smile, despite his mind screaming at him to put as much distance from this being as he possibly could. Touma grinned; the Plasma Caster finally stopped pissing himself in fear.

A pair of eyes snapped open, fluttering lightly. Her neck hurt rather badly. Her vision was rather blurry as well. She slowly lifted herself up to a sitting position, trying to make out her surroundings. She eventually focused on a boy, hair black and spiky; seeing him made her heart race. But what she saw next made it stop; a large bloody head of a dragon where his right arm should have been.

"T-T-Touma…!?" Mikoto said quietly. Neither Dynamo nor Touma heard her, as neither one addressed her.

"So! You wanna skip to the end huh!? In most games you get punished for that with the bad ending!" Touma said.

"I've been on that path for a while now; getting the ending I deserve a little early won't make much difference~" Dynamo replied. Touma laughed.

"I actually kinda like you, Plasma Caster! I might regret eating you just a little bit!" Touma lunged, his dragon head roaring as it closed its teeth down. It missed, however, as Dynamo stepped to the side and move in close, delivering a powerful punch to Touma's face. The Imagine Breaker only took a step back from the impact though, and reached up and grabbed Dynamo's arm, and flipped him over his shoulder, smashing the Plasma Caster into the ground. The Imagine Breaker was not done; however, as he did it again, this time smashing him into a chunk of charred steel. And finally, Touma spun Dynamo around rapidly before flinging him into a concrete wall, completely demolishing it, causing it to collapse down on top of Dynamo. The Plasma Caster forced his way up but was harshly kicked back into the pile of rubble; the kick causing him to cough up blood. Before he could get back up again, Touma smashed his foot down on Dynamo's chest, effectively pinning him.

"Shit… I only got one hit in…" Dynamo coughed.

"I know… those damn fights where you're scripted to lose… such a pain, right?" Touma grinned.

"Those are the worst… the only ones I hate more is the ones that you're scripted to win… absolutely no tension in the moment…" Dynamo said.

"Then I guess you got the lesser of two evils…" Touma replied. Dynamo laughed.

"That I did… just hurry up and finish it already… I feel like taking a nap… please… wake me up when I'm not in Academy City anymore…" Dynamo closed his eyes, resigning himself to his fate. To him, it was ironic that the city that caused him so much pain would end up taking it all away in the end. His only regret would be leaving Shurui on such a negative note; she'd probably blame herself for his death, he thought. He wished he could make her smile one last time.

Touma's grin receded into just a small smile as the dragon's head rose, its mouth opening up and slowly preparing to bite down as it began to cover the Plasma Caster's head.

"STOP!" Mikoto shouted. "Just… stop it! No more!" Touma turned his head, tilting it to one side, revealing that his eyes although while open, were empty, soulless; like a puppet.

"Ah…? You want to do the honors? I don't blame you, ya know." Touma replied with a smile, pulling the dragon head away.

"No! Why would I ever want to do anything like that!?" Mikoto shouted.

"Really? I thought you were the vengeful type… you really are had to read." Touma replied. Mikoto looked down, her hands balled into fists, her bangs hiding her eyes/

"…What's wrong, Touma?" She asked in a low tone.

"Beg pardon…?" Touma asked, taking his foot off Dynamo's torso and turning to face her.

"I asked what's wrong… Y-you can tell me you know… I-I'll help you out however I can…" Mikoto replied.

"Ah… but nothing is wrong! Things are perfectly fine!" Touma replied with a smile, his doll-like eyes looking up.

"S-so then why… why…!?" Mikoto looked up, tears falling down her face. "Why are you trying to kill someone!?"

"Didn't you think you killed him already? You're talking about something ridiculous you know…" Touma replied.

"I am far from innocent… my possible actions in that situation are predictable… but you…" Mikoto trailed off before shouting loud, "The Kamijou Touma I know and love would NEVER consider taking someone else's life, no matter what was at stake!"

"…Kamijou Touma is dead." Touma replied, slowly walking forward. "The night that light shot into the sky; the night when white feathers danced… is the day that the boy known as Kamijou Touma died. What you 'love,' is just an empty shell, struggling to live up to the level of that dead boy…" Mikoto knew what this... thing was referring to; the night Kamijou Touma lost his own memories. Permanently erased; the brain cells devoted to those memories being destroyed outright. People would remember Mikoto eventually; Index said that there was a three-day limit on the memory phenomena, but Kamijou Touma's missing 16 years of his life would never return; not on their own anyway.

"I refuse to believe that." Mikoto replied.

"You're in denial? That's kinda cute, you know." Touma laughed lightly.

"No… what makes Touma is not his memory… it's what he does; how he lives. What he does for others, how far he goes for even the most complete of strangers, just because in his heart it's the right thing to do. Touma has never changed; even when his memory was gone! So how can you say he died when he never left!?"

"You're speaking complete non-" Mikoto suddenly moved, and slapped Touma as hard as she could. Touma froze, and slowly turned back toward Mikoto.

"Kamijou Touma is STILL alive. You can say that he died all you want, but the Touma I know isn't bogged down by his own faults; he will go on to make everyone happy whether he remembers them or not. He will live and fight for them, just like he always did! Because THAT is what makes him who he is; not this insignificant thing known as memory, but his selfless heart that will stand up for anyone, whether they want him to or not! That is the Kamijou Touma that I know; that is the Kamijou Touma I respect… that is the Kamijou Touma I love with every ounce of my heart!" Mikoto shouted as Touma took a step back. A sudden pressure filled the air as Touma's smile faded, his eyes widening, taking on what seemed to be pain.

**"Get back into your cage."** Was heard, coming from Touma's direction, but Touma's lips did not move. It was loud and booming, demanding obedience. The dragon head roared loudly into the sky, and suddenly, shattered. Like glass, its pieces exploded into every possible direction, the pieces vanishing before it could make contact with anything. Where it once was; Touma's right arm appeared; as if it had never been severed; despite the original severed limb lying not too far away. Touma's eyes looked tired, almost as if he had been asleep. Touma fell forward suddenly, leaving Mikoto to catch him.

"Mi…saka…" Touma said as consciousness left him again, his eyes closing. Tears fell from Mikoto's surprised face, as she wrapped her arms around Touma's sleeping body, pressing her face into his shoulder. Dynamo forced himself up, holding his left arm, staring baffled at the scene before him.

"W-what… what was that…?" He asked out loud. It must have been that other being the dragon-head was referring to… but why did it suddenly act like that? The dragon obviously didn't care about Mikoto, but why did this mysterious entity? This thought was interrupted as a loud crash came from behind the plasma caster.

"I found you!" Gilgamesh shouted loudly, in his true form, with eight un-equipped arms. Dynamo looked surprised, but a smile creped over his face as Gilgamesh brought an entire row of fists into his face, launching him away, his body bouncing several times before landing flat on his face. Gilgamesh slowly walked over it the Plasma Caster, standing over him. "That is for trying to kill me and almost killing Enkidu… now it's time to pay you back for the constant trouble you've been causing, wouldn't you agree…?" Slowly, Dynamo started to laugh hysterically, irking the large multi-armed man. "Hey… I wasn't joking ya know! Stop laughing at me!"

"I-I'm not laughing at you…" Dynamo said in-between breaths, slowly climbing to his feet. "Man… this… God… or whoever is in charge of this world… he sure has a cruel sense of humor…"

"What are you talking about…?" Gilgamesh rose and eyebrow.

"I've killed a lot of people, ya know… before coming back here… yet no matter how many times I come close to death… someone always steps in… either saving my life or giving me new reasons to live… it's rather cruel, ya know…" Dynamo stood, or at least tried too. He was leaning back and forth, having trouble keeping his balance. "And… now that my life isn't on the line anymore… it's time I made my escape…" Dynamo's body suddenly started to glow, energy emanating from him.

"Escape…? It looks more like you're turning yourself into a bomb… one should only blow oneself up to save their dearest of friends, and only if they really, really need it!" Gilgamesh shouted. Dynamo laughed again.

"I'm a Plasma Caster… I can manipulate plasma however I wish… I can even break down my own body using plasma… until my entire body transforms into it…" Dynamo said.

"What kind of benefit does that serve you…?" Gilgamesh replied, drawing Excalibur. Dynamo laughed again.

"It means I can travel almost as fast as the speed of light, my manipulation of plasma extends to when my entire body is plasma too you know!" Dynamo replied. "Since my life is mine again; it's my job to return to her and to make her smile!"

"Oh… OH! So that's what you're planning!" Gilgamesh said, readying his blade for a downward slash. "You're not gonna get away from me!"

"See ya later, Gilgy~ tell your friend I shot hello!" Dynamo's body suddenly exploded into a bright light as Gilgamesh swung, the blade gliding right through the plasma. The energy suddenly converged into an single point and shot into the air with a odd sound, vanishing into the sky.

"Oh… you bastard…!" Gilgamesh shouted. "Just you wait! I'm gonna beat the shit out of you yet!" He balled his fists into the sky. As if responding, the dark clouds seem to have gathered, perhaps over the course of the conflict in reaction to the electrical discharge, and it slowly started to rain. Slowly but surely, the members of Big Bridge began to gather. People began to surround the area, some known by both sides, others not, checking out to see what had happened. Whispers and rumors filled the crowd. Wonders of what could have caused so much destruction…

And also curiosities of the lone girl holding an unconscious boy in her arms as tightly as she could; crying softly into the boy's shoulder as the raindrops fell.

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**And there is chapter 11... we are slowly but surely approaching the end-game people! I'd like to thank you all for reaidng and reviewing my works! Leave a review telling me how i did! ^^**


	12. Gathering

**This one will be the last or the shorter chapters I think... enjoy! And welcome to the Final Arc!**

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Touma's eyes slowly opened. He seemed to be lying in his bed in his apartment. Slowly, he sat up with a foggy look in his eyes.

"You're awake!" Touma looked to his left to see Mikoto sitting on a chair that was pulled up to his bed-side. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine… just a little stiff… where is everyone?" Touma asked, noting that they were in the room alone.

"Next door with Tsuchimikado-san I think…" Mikoto answered. "Except that Gilgamesh guy… once he heard the story about what's going on he sped off to try and find the magician himself."

"I see… how long was I out of it?"

"About two days…" Mikoto replied. Touma looked around his room.

"Nothing's different… so Endless Fiction hasn't been used…" Touma said.

"More than likely that magician has been using all of her magical power to heal Dynamo… he looked like he was hurt big time…"

"…He did?" Touma asked. Mikoto was going to make a comment, but then noticed Touma's confused look.

"You… don't remember?" Mikoto asked. Touma shook his head.

"It's all fuzzy… the only thing I remember is seeing you before I passed out again… did something happen?" Mikoto studied Touma's face for a moment. Her eyes then drifted down to Touma's right arm. He didn't remember… not a single thing from when that thing came out. Mikoto smiled, and then looked back up to Touma's face.

"No; nothing happened. After Dynamo returned, Gilgamesh appeared and saved us. We thought Dynamo did something strange to you because of how long you were unconscious… but you're awake now, so it's fine." Mikoto lied, knowing full well that it was Touma who took down the Plasma Caster; she thought knowing about such a thing's appearance would only trouble Touma further. Touma looked unconvinced, but accepted the answer.

"…Hey, how did I get my arm back? I'm fairly certain Dynamo cut it off…"

"Dr. Gekota made a house call." Mikoto replied.

"Dr… Gekota?" Touma asked. "…Oh! The frog-faced doctor. Weird… I didn't think he did house calls…"

"H-he made a special exception because it was you." Mikoto lied. Keeping this secret from him was going to be a long difficult road, it seemed. Touma looked at his right hand, opening and closing his fist.

"…When my arm was cut off, did something come out of it?" Touma asked.

"N-n-no! Nothing like that happened!" Mikoto replied. Touma sighed.

"…You don't have to lie to me biri-biri; I know it's there." Touma said with his back against the wall behind him.

"B-but…!" She cut herself off, realizing that she accidentally let it slip.

"It's fine… but, please tell me what really happened." Touma said. Mikoto looked down with a frown.

"I-I don't know everything… when I came to you were about to kill Dynamo… I said some... embarrassing things…" Mikoto blushed, looking away. "A-and there was this loud voice… the thing for your arm disappeared and you passed out… and… here we are."

"So you stopped me, huh?" Touma asked. Mikoto nodded, and Touma let out a relieved sigh and smiled. "Thank you… I hate it when that thing gets out… someone always gets hurt." Mikoto looked both confused and surprised. She thought Touma would be angry with her for lying, but he was just relieved that no one died.

"How… how long as that thing been there?" Mikoto asked. Touma shrugged.

"I don't know… perhaps since I was born… it's connected to the Imagine Breaker for some reason." Touma replied. "It doesn't bother me too much; I think it can only come out when someone cuts off my right arm anyway."

"Idiot, why are you not more bothered about this…?" Mikoto sighed. Touma smiled.

"Why should I be? I have someone right next to me who can make him go away." Mikoto blushed red and looked away, flustered. "Thank you again… Mikoto." She blushed harder upon hearing him say her first same with such familiarity.

"Y-y-you're welcome…" Mikoto stuttered.

"…So… everyone should be next door, right? I have some new info I can give…" Touma was about to get up, but stopped when Mikoto suddenly grabbed his arm, holding it tightly.

"I-I-I don't know what's g-going to happen n-next… s-so…" Mikoto trailed off for a moment. "J-just for now… c-can we just share this moment? J-Just the two of us?" Touma looked surprised, but laid back with a smile.

"Sure… whatever you want. I'm fine with it, just as long as it makes you happy."

**-20 minutes later, outside Tsuchimikado's room-**

"Eh…? Where is Kanzaki… and… Enkidu; why are you here?" Aside from Touma and Mikoto, Stiyl, Index, Tsuchimikado, and Enkidu were sitting around. The obvious oddness was Kanzaki's disappearance, and the fact that Enkidu was away from her master.

"Kanzaki went to make an appeal; it is very possible that this plot extends to other sources, so she's trying to convince the church that the threat is legitimate, and that a thorough investigation is conducted. All possibilities of a copy-cat or other assorted factors must be taken care of." Stiyl answered.

"Sir Gilgamesh told me to wait for his signal before joining in… probably because of me getting shot." Enkidu shrugged. She wasn't wearing her red scarf around her head anymore, letting her long curly hair free.

"…How did you even come across Gilgamesh, anyway?" Touma asked. Enkidu looked up, promptly blushed, and looked away.

"I-It's nothing special… I was a lab rat for some kind of experiment… they deemed me a failure and were about to execute me, Gilgamesh broke in searching for another weapon they developed, and rescued me in the process… I've been following him ever since." Enkidu finished. "H-he is also the one who named me too… that might be worth mentioning…"

"So… he saved your life and gave you your identity… makes sense why you're so attached to him." Touma said.

"S-Sir Gilgamesh is a being of absolute amazement with both his judgment of character and his kindness toward others! Nothing I could ever do could make things even between us!" Enkidu suddenly shouted. Silence soon followed, and realizing that she caused it, Enkidu shrank back into her seat, her face a bright red.

"…As intriguing as this person's back story is; while Kanzaki is securing our support, what should we do?" Stiyl asked.

"About tha-" Touma was interrupted by the sudden ringing of his cell phone.

"Idiot… I thought you turned that thing off." Mikoto scolded.

"I… did…" Touma replied with confusion. This earned a questioning look as Touma took out the phone, but the caller ID said 'restricted access.' Touma looked at Mikoto for approval and received a nod, and then flipped open the cell and answered. "Hello?"

"Good afternoon, I trust that your rest has been comfortable?" A male's voice replied. It seemed indifferent, but relaxed.

"…Who is this?" Touma asked.

"The head administrator." The voice replied. "Aleister Crowley; your ticket to the resolution of your current problem. I know where you're little magician you're after is…"

"Why… are you getting involved? And moreover; why are you helping us?" Touma asked with a suspicious tone.

"Endless Fiction would interfere with my own plans; you see… having to start from scratch again would be a problem." Aleister replied. He spoke in such a manner that Endless Fiction was just a minor annoyance he wanted to quell; as if the spell wont or possibly even can't reach him. "As for why I am contacting you… I just didn't want one of the networks to do it… I felt that contacting you would be better; I do apologize for not being able to appear personally."

"…So get on with it then; tell us what we need to know." Touma replied, sitting down.

"The building is the 6829 Building in the Military District. Though abandoned, it holds many, many technological secrets… and it seems this Dynamo and his partner have broken in and forcefully disconnected me from the network in that building… sadly; there is not much I can do about it… normally; there are armed guards all over the exterior, but you will find your entrance tonight to be a rather easy one…"

"You relieved them of duty… alright… but why haven't you taken care of this already if you have absolute control over Anti-skill…?" Touma asked.

"Because getting in is easy… but the path you are after leads to the basement… and there is where the challenge comes in… A project known as the DST, Digital Construction Technology, exists. There; one can make nearly any object or creature within it. In truth, I have tried several times, but all the people I send inside end up getting killed… it's a shame. I theorize that your Imagine Breaker can dispel such things but I have no proof of it. And considering the size of the basement… well; let's just say it will be an adventure. Like I said; I cannot influence anything in that building; once you're inside, you're on your own…" Aleister finished. The line went silent for a moment before Touma spoke.

"…Thank you. I'll make sure your assistance isn't wasted." Touma replied, shutting off his phone shortly after. Aleister was surprised... but pleased. Even in the eyes of a suicide mission, Kamijou Touma would not disappoint.

"Who was it…?" Mikoto asked.

"The… guy who's in charge." Touma replied. It took Mikoto a moment to realize who Touma was referring to. "Alright, I know what we are in for and where to go…" Touma turned toward Index. "Sorry; but I don't think you should come along; it'll be too dangerous for you…"

"Touma!" Index angrily shouted. Reflexively Touma threw up his arms.

"W-wait! I'm just looking out for you! Don't bite me!" Touma shouted. But an attack never came.

"…Come back safe, ok?" Index asked with a concerned look. Touma appeared confused, but started to relax.

"Sure, I always come back, remember?" Touma replied. "Tsuchimikado; keep Index safe for me, ok?"

"No problem Kami-yan~ I'll see if I can get ya some outside support too~" Tsuchimikado replied.

"Tell me what needs done and I'll make sure the Big Bridge is there in full force Sir Kamijou. Sir Gilgamesh and I would be more than happy to support you." Enkidu said.

"Just remember; cowards taste many deaths, but heroes taste just one… that means you just got one life! Don't waste it on a leap of faith, alright?" Tsuchimikado said. Touma looked toward Stiyl, then Mikoto, before nodding.

"Of course; why would I waste my life in any kind of pointless way like that?"

**-30 Minutes Later, a Certain Apartment-**

"So you're going, Misaka Misaka asks with curiosity?" Last Order, a ten-year old looking Misaka clone and the administrator of the Misaka Network, sat on the couch as Accelerator stood up, putting on a coat.

"Might as well; that fucking hero is going to get himself into shit and probably will need someone to pull him out of it." Accelerator replied, grabbing his cane.

"Tou-san," A much older-looking Misaka clone, known simply as Misaka Worst, asked in a bored sounding tone. "Are you going to leave Misaka here all along while you go out and have fun again?"

"Tch… If you wanna fucking come, then fucking come. I just don't wanna hear you bitching about being bored if you decide to sit out." Accelerator replied.

"So Misaka should stay home and then complain when you get back? Misaka can do that!" Worst said with a devious smile, making Accelerator let out a growl of frustration. "Oh well; Misaka is bored already, so Misaka will come and save Tou-san from the big bad guys. I expect a thank you for Misaka's services later."

"Tch… like you're going to get something like that." Accelerator retorted. "How about you do something worthy of it and maybe I'll consider it."

"Misaka could let you touch her tits and ass; it'll be the closest to female attention you'll get."

"If I wanted to cop a feel, I would have already." Accelerator turned around.

"Are you saying you don't want to touch Misaka's sexy body?" Worst replied with a grin.

"Are you saying you want me to touch your body?" Accelerator retorted.

"Maybe Misaka does; would that a problem?" WORST replied.

"Tch… whatever." Accelerator said. "If you're coming, then follow me. Just don't go getting yourself killed."

**-Same Time, Academy City Roof-Tops-**

"So… they are going there then…" Gilgamesh said.

"You've been there before?" Enkidu asked.

"Once; I was in the area and I decided to take a look around. I think I found this… basement, but the door was locked and I didn't want to trip the alarm." Gilgamesh replied, standing up with his naginata.

"So what is the plan?" Enkidu asked.

"Isn't it obvious!?" Gilgamesh shouted. "We will drill into the basement from above and take them by surprise! This Grimoire the magician has could be a rather interesting tool! And they will be so satisfied with the outcome; they won't bat an eyelash at me keeping it! Plus I'll be able to beat the crap out of that Dynamo person!"

"…" Enkidu looked annoyed, but bowed. "Of course, I'll ready the men immediately."

"No… just you and me!" Gilgamesh wraps his arm around Enkidu's shoulder, earning a blush from his subordinate. "Just like the good old times, remember? It's been so long! Let's take them by storm!" Gilgamesh raised his other arm with a fist into the air. Enkidu could only let out a wide smile with stars in her eyes, not even worrying about the burning sensation she had on her face.

"Y-yes sir!"

**-Outside Building 6829-**

"So… this is the place, huh…" Touma commented. "For an old building, it sure looks like it's been taken care of well."

"Even cancelled projects can hold some merit in the long run. It probably only stores research notes, but all abandoned functioning facilities is maintained just in case a project is revived with new interest, or if findings can be used for other projects." Mikoto said.

"But it's disconnected from the main networks… it must have its own cleaning system or something." Touma shrugged.

"Getting inside is the easy part… let's get this show on the road then." Stiyl said, stepping forward. "The sooner this is over, the sooner things can return to normal."

"Just be careful and watch your step, it may be disconnected from the network, but it still may have security in place." Mikoto warned. Touma nodded.

"Well… only one way to get this done! Let's go!"

**-Inside-**

"Oh my… it seems we've been found out." Dynamo said, leaning back in his chair.

"Eh? So soon?" Shurui asked. "Oh my… three teams. Trouble."

"Good thing there is only one en- eh… that Gilgamesh guy just fell through the floor. So much for having them all in one place." Dynamo sighed.

"Will it be a problem?" Shurui asked.

"No; it shouldn't be. I'll wait till they are all in the currently black basement… then I'll create a little game for them all to play." Dynamo replied. Shurui sighed.

"You and your games… you're like a kid who never grew up sometimes."

"I grew up on video games~ I was a regular nerd. Lack of a social life and everything~" Dynamo replied.

"Yet while you have an opportunity with a woman you still pass it up for games…" Shurui said.

"Aha? You saying you want to do various things with your little Dynamo? Don't be shy, he won't reject you~" Dynamo joked. Shurui's eye witched as her face turned red.

"Shut up and get to work!"

"Aye! Don't worry; Dynamo won't fail you during the final stretch for the goal! It's time for fun in Dynamo's Cyber Maze!"

* * *

**Here we are once again. Did you like it? I hope so! ^^**


	13. Digital Construction Technology

**Sorry for lateness, enjoy! ^^**

* * *

"Tou-san~ Misaka is bored."

"Shut the fuck up already." Accelerator replied.

"Why can't we use the front door?" Worst asked.

"The fucker is probably rigged to explode or something; let the hero deal with it." Accelerator replied. "There should be an employee entrance on the side somewhere."

"But Tou-san~ it's taking so long!" Worst said, with a grin. She knew she was being annoying; it was her goal after all.

"Then go fucking home! I don't even know why the fuck you're following me anyway!" Accelerator shouted.

"Misaka is curious about where you go at night; Misaka is making sure you're not going to strip clubs behind Misaka's back." Worst replied.

"Did you really think I'd do shit like that, especially right now? Fucking bitch, just go home." Accelerator said.

"You would dismiss me already? Tou-san is mean." Worst replied. "Without Misaka, you'd get caught and killed within five minutes."

"Tch, yeah fucking right…" Accelerator turned toward the wall next to him and flipped on his switch, and then kicked the wall, using his Vector Change to ramp up the force, demolishing it.

"Tou-san is getting impatient~ be careful, you might explode too early…"

"Shut up already. Keep up or go home!" Accelerator shouted as he walked into the hole he had made. Worst could only grin as she followed the Number One esper, much to the said esper's annoyance.

**-Gilgamesh's Location-**

Crash. Boom. Crash. Thud.

"Whew… the straight down approach worked." Gilgamesh said.

"Y-yeah…" Enkidu nervously replied. "Wow… it's so dark… I can't see a thing." The only reason they could see anything at all is from the daylight from the hole they made.

"Hrm… let's see…" Gilgamesh mused, and made a fireball in his hand to create more light. The floor was a pale white, and although about three meters around were lit up, it was still dark all around them. Gilgamesh threw the fireball in a random direction and saw it light up… and eventually go so far it vanished from sight, the sound of a small boom arriving about ten seconds later. "Whew… a lot of ground to cover… looked a lot smaller above…"

"What should we do? We can't exactly see where we are going… and we have no idea where the door is..."

"Well... this is a problem… and heading back the way we came isn't an option… well, at least for me." Gilgamesh scratched his head. "Well… if we walk till he hit a wall, and follow said wall, we will eventually find something like a door. I don't see many other options…"

"True… I just hope we can find our way fast. This place… feels wrong…"

**-Touma's Location-**

"Who the hell puts dynamite on their front door!?" Touma shouted.

"Obviously someone who doesn't want company…" Mikoto replied.

"I think it goes a little bit farther than just that…" Touma sighed.

"The entry way into a secure military complex; of course it's trapped somehow." Stiyl said.

"Oh shut up already…" Touma sighed. He then looked around, noting that like the outside, the inside was kept in order. It was as if time stopped. It seemed somewhat creepy that a supposedly abandoned building was so clean and organized.

"I don't like the way this place feels…" Mikoto said.

"Same… let's find our way and get this done as soon as possible." Touma replied. After a little bit of searching, they found a steel door with an electronic lock. Like the rest of the facility, it was in working order, and as such, locked. "No use… it won't budge."

"Hold on… I can hack the lock, I just need a minute." Mikoto said, removing the electronic lock's console. Before she could do anything, massive flames blasted the door down, and Stiyl started walking forward, down the revealed staircase."

"They already know we are here, trying to sneak around is pointless." Stiyl said.

"R-right…" Touma replied. They started down the long staircase until they ran into another door that Stiyl once again blasted down. It led into a dark room.

"Where… are we?" Mikoto asked.

"It must be the basement Aleister was talking about… watch your step…" Touma answered, slowly making his way out into the room, with his partners following closely. With an odd sound; the light from the staircase they just descended had vanished; the door had been fixed. "What the hell!?" Touma turned around and ran for the door; it had indeed been reconstructed, because he was standing on the old one.

"It fixed itself?" Mikoto asked.

"No… a new one re-appeared in its place." Touma answered. A strange buzzing sound seemed to come from all around, as a large flash of light filled the entire area. It must have lingered for at least ten seconds before fading away, and what they saw next astounded them

It was like they had stepped into a completely different world. The way back seemed to have vanished, but the entire area lit up. The sky appeared a natural blue, occasionally flashing a dim purple tint, but with occasional bolts of electricity streaming off, making patterns like circuit boards. They came and went in sequences, at a rate that made it seem almost like a heartbeat. On occasion, streams of random figures and symbols of data could be seen streaming down and vanishing. It felt like a completely digital world. The white floor seemed to have risen on both sides of them, making a straight narrow path for them to follow, with the walls of this path not even appearing solid, more like glass. Strange symbols and figures were on them and they would pulse on occasion, and glow all sorts of different colors.

"I-it's… I don't know why but… it looks so beautiful… yet unnatural…" Mikoto said, looking around.

"…The Breath of Creation." Stiyl said. "A spell said to have been used by God when he created this existence… this experiment wasn't just a research project to develop easily made goods or new lives; it was an experiment to replicate the miracle of the creation of life… that flash of light wasn't the lights coming on... it was literally this world coming into existence…"

"The only thing the same is the floor… everything else must be created with DST… it must also be able to influence the height of the floor…" Touma said. "Dynamo is making his move…"

"Then let's go. We don't want to get stuck inside this… fictional world." Mikoto said. "That Dynamo wouldn't seal us off completely; there must be a way to get to where we need to go."

"…Right." Touma said as the group started to walk down the path created for them.

**-Accelerator's Location-**

"Tou-san? What the hell is all of this?" Worst took notice the moment they made their way into the basement of the strange surroundings. Unlike Touma's group, there were multiple paths, with no real rhyme or reason to them.

"They're leftovers from another project." Accelerator answered briefly. "It's a fucking maze… pain in my ass."

"Why don't we just blast down the walls?"

"Because unlike upstairs, down here any one of these could be the power generator; we could kill the fucking lights and have to fuck around in the dark just to find out way." Accelerator replied.

"So Misaka should blow everything up?" Worst asked with a smirk.

"Do it and I'll beat the shit out of you. Stupid brat." Accelerator shot back.

"You're no fun Tou-san…" Worst sighed. "Where are we going to go then? Misaka doesn't like this fake existence."

"…Down this one; entrance to this floor from the facility map was south, so where we need to go should be north." Accelerator said, pointing to his left.

"And what if that way leads to a dead end?" Worst asked.

"We jump over the fucking wall; no fucking roofs in sight you know." Accelerator gruffly answered.

**-Gilgamesh's Location-**

Unlike the previous two, Gilgamesh was in a wide open area, no walls in sight. He stood in this open area, while Enkidu was practically dancing all around, looking.

"Oh wow! Look at it!" She said. "It's so beautiful… it is, right Sir Gilgamesh?" She asked in joy. Gilgamesh didn't respond. "Sir Gilgamesh?" She asked again, still without a reply. "Sir Gilgamesh… is something wrong…?" She asked nervously.

"Ha… haaaa… haaaaaa…" Escaped Gilgamesh's mouth, and then he suddenly took a deep breath. "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" He screamed, suddenly grabbing Enkidu's arm and running as fast as he could in a random direction.

"S-Sir Gilgamesh!?" She screamed, being forced along.

"How did it happen how did it happen…" Gilgamesh chanted like a mantra. "I've spent so long avoiding it…"

"W-what are you talking about!?" Enkidu franticly shouted.

" After all these years… HOW DID I GET STUCK IN THE RIFT AGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIINNNNNN!?" Gilgamesh shouted as he ran, noticeable tears of depression in his eyes.

**-Central Processing-**

"A few modifications for our guests… and the traps in the maze are complete!" Dynamo said, currently being in a completely different area than the main researcher's office, Shurui's location, mostly for the influence. The Central Processing Center, the place Dynamo was keeping himself busy with the main computer, where the main computer is stored for control of the DST equipment. "Now… what should I make for a challenge…"

"How is it going, Dynamo?" A radio transmission from Shurui.

"It's all set. It's just a matter of making and placing the things for our guests to enjoy!" Dynamo answered.

"Will I have enough time to set up Endless Fiction?" Shurui asked.

"Set-up? Definitely. To gather up the magical energy to cast it… I'd wait until our associates are down for the count. It'd be too close of a call in the best-case scenario. Some of our guests are… unexpected. I'll bide you as much time as I possibly can."

"Good…" Shurui said. After a small pause, she spoke again. "…Thank you. Thank you for your support, Dynamo…"

"…Don't worry about it." The Plasma Caster answered. "One way or another; there will be a happy ending to this story of ours."

**-Touma's Location-**

"It opened up…" Touma said, observing the area the path had led them. It was a rather open area, with multiple paths out; the room looked like it could hold about fifty people.

"This room… it looks kind of like… an arena." Stiyl said.

"An arena?" Mikoto asked. No sooner that she said that, a low growl was heard down one of the paths. A large green lizard of sorts slowly lumbered out, his long neck reaching out into the area before its winged back and tail made its way. Once outside, it stood on its hind legs and spread its wings, letting out a massive roar, and appeared to breathe fire. The creature's identity was un-mistakable; it was a dragon. It suddenly charged at the trio, who moved out of the way as the dragon rammed into the narrow pathway.

"W-what the hell is that thing!?" Touma shouted.

"It's a dragon you idiot! Look out!" Mikoto shouted as the dragon charged again, aiming for Touma. The Imagine Breaker in question rolled out of the way, just narrowly dodging a powerful bite from the large behemoth. Touma got onto his feet quickly and tried his best to put as much distance away from the large creature and him as possible. The dragon roared and a massive flame erupted from its mouth, the great wave of fire racing toward Touma. On instinct, Touma held out his right hand as the fire preyed upon him, and despite the fact that a dragon breathing fire should have been a natural event, a loud cracking sound was hard as the flames made contact and moved around, eventually vanishing completely, and in response the dragon roaring again.

"I-it worked…?" Touma asked, clutching his right hand. It was completely unharmed, like it always is.

"Touma! Look out!" Mikoto shouted as the dragon charged again. But instead of moving to the side, Touma stood his ground.

"If the fire produced by its body can be negated then…!" As Touma as about to be head-on rammed, he pulled back his fist and slammed it into the large dragon's nose, and almost immediately, it stopped. A loud cracking sound was heard, and with a roar the dragon began to dissolve into blue streams of data, floating into the sky until there was nothing left, and its loud cries of pain finally vanished. With a relieved sigh, Touma slumped back against a wall, leaning and eventually sitting.

"Touma, are you alright?" Mikoto asked.

"Yeah… I'm fine. Just stressed out, I thought I was really going to die there." Touma replied.

"How did you know your right arm would work?" Mikoto asked.

"I didn't… it was just a hunch…" Touma replied. "If a dragon's fire is produced by its body, not magic or anything like that… it would be a completely natural reaction, so my Imagine Breaker shouldn't have been able to negate it. But it did… so I took a guess." Touma opened and closed his right hand. "It's what Aleister was talking about… even though these things are produced through a scientific reaction, it must still be supernatural enough to fall under the Imagine Breaker's jurisdiction."

"But how did they even get a dragon to work like that… experimentation to find out how dragon's work?" Mikoto mused, helping Touma up.

"No, more than likely information from Aleister about dragons… they are very real." Stiyl said, lighting up a cigarette. "Or at least they used to be… they are extinct, but Aleister has been around long with to probably have information on them."

"I see… this world of magic combining with science is so confusing…" Mikoto said.

"The important part here, however, is that the Imagine Breaker was able to negate the dragon's existence… which means anything created with the DST can be killed and destroyed by it." Stiyl said.

"…So no matter what Dynamo throws at us, we can take it down." Touma replied. "He probably knows that… where do we go now? There are three paths."

"The dragon probably was guarding the way… we should stick together, you never know what will happen, something could be created that only the Imagine Breaker can kill." Stiyl said.

"Right… and who knows how big this place is, we could get lost really easy…" Mikoto commented.

"This maze is going to be a problem…" Touma sighed. "Such misfortune."

**-Dynamo's Location-**

"The little Imagine Breaker even works in this fictional world I have created… I guess the power of God truly has no influence over it." Dynamo leaned back in his chair. "…Born to kill God, huh…?" Dynamo's thoughts turned toward that thing that he had awoken. "I wonder what it's like… to house multiple beings within your body…"

"Progress report." Shurui asked via the radio.

"Just as we thought; the Imagine Breaker works on things made by the DST." Dynamo replied.

"Understood… got any ideas?"

"I have loads of creatures and things loaded up and ready to go, and I can make more. Just need to plan…" Dynamo replied. "Speaking of which; how goes your little project that's based on the DST?"

"Excellent… if needed, I can show our guests my Little Diablo." Shurui replied in an amused tone. "I know you dislike him, but I find him quite cute!"

"It. Has. Toad. Eyes." Dynamo said. "There is NOTHING cute about that thing!"

"You're just scared because I give it more attention than you."

"No; I'm scared because it looks like it might eat me." Dynamo replied.

"You always dislike my pets…" Shurui wined.

"Your pets always try and kill me." Dynamo replied with an annoyed tone.

"Not my fault you're bad with animals…"

"Your 'little Diablo,' is not an animal!" Dynamo shot back. The line went silent for a moment.

"…What do we do if this doesn't work, Dynamo?" Shurui asked, suddenly sounding serious.

"Are you having second thoughts?"

"No… it's just… what do we do if this fails?" Shurui asked again.

"…Then we try it again somewhere else." Dynamo replied.

"Are you sure you want to follow me to cause more pain again?" Shurui asked. Dynamo paused for a moment before replying.

"If the pain can bring about an end to all pain, then it is a pain worth suffering through."

* * *

**And where we are again... what are your guy's thoughts so far on this story? Has it met, exceeded, or fallen short of your expectations so far? Let me know in a review! I'm very interested! Have a good day everyone, thanks for reading! ^^**


	14. Cyber Maze

**And Now... our friends little adventure in Dynamo's Cyber Maze Begins! I'll try and update this a little faster next time, Enjoy!**

* * *

"Such misfortune!" Is what escaped Touma's lips as he ran, with Mikoto and Stiyl were not far behind. Behind them, a pack of rabid wolves ran, barking and howling up a storm, trying to hunt down their pray. "S-Stiyl! Try it again!"

"It didn't work before, what makes you think it will work now!?" Stiyl shouted back.

"And you have a better idea!?" Touma replied.

"Tch… fine!" Stiyl stopped for a moment and turned around, gathering a large flame in his hands before blasting it down the hallway toward the wolf pack. Like many times before, pained howls form them could be heard, filling the area. Like many times before, the wolves bodies burned, smoke rising into the fabricated sky. And like many times before, green lights started in front of the pile and eventually formed into yet another pack of wolves, ready to start the chase again. "I keep telling you! The only way to get rid of them for good is to hit them with the Imagine Breaker!"

"And I keep telling you, there are too many for me to hit!"

"Stop arguing and start running you idiots!" Mikoto shouted as the wolf pack started again, causing the trio to start running again. "What can we do about this!?"

"Beats me; there are way too many for me, and outright blasting them apart isn't working!" Touma replied. The Imagine Breaker in question was running a tad bit farther ahead than his associates, and saw something, came to an abrupt stop, skidding along the ground. Just a narrow escape from what would be a rather… dark-looking drop. Below him was a pit that led into darkness. However, his associates didn't see his sudden stop and crashed into him, causing the trio to fall down the pit. The sounds of the wolves slowly faded away as they landed with a loud thud. The area was dark, but the pulsing lights from all the symbols lit it up somewhat. Unlike before, which was a straight forward path, a corridor filled hallway is what was ahead of them.

"Is everyone ok?" Touma asked.

"Yeah… I'm fine." Mikoto answered.

"I hate dogs…" Stiyl replied, climbing to his feet.

"We landed somewhere else… good thing the wolves didn't follow us…" Mikoto said.

"I'm more worried about the hall ahead of us… so many hiding places along the hallway." Touma said. Slowly, they started to make their way down the mostly-dark hallway. The constant darkness gave a much more creepy feeling than the blue over world. What made it even creepier, however, were the occasional sounds of footsteps… that weren't theirs. They always sounded far away , but seemed to be getting louder, closer. This gave a bewildering feeling of dread; not knowing of what was coming. Their answer to what the mysterious sounds were came quickly, as a red dot of a laser scope aiming towards them. On instinct, Touma and Mikoto ducked away into the side corridors, and Touma pulled Stiyl whim him just in time as gun-shots rang out from an assault rifle.

"Soldiers…!?" Touma asked.

"There are probably more of them… making use of the darkness; possibly with night vision…" Mikoto whispered. The only thing to aid them was the occasional flashing lights of the walls. When the soldier that shot at them passed the corridor they ducked into, Touma charged and decked the solider across the face, the soldier letting out a loud yell as he dissolved into nothing. This was just a make-shift solution, however, as like Mikoto said, there was more than one soldier down the dark halls, and they quickly started running toward the location of their fallen comrade's scream. The trio quickly shuffled down the corridor to avoid being caught until the footsteps stopped, and then started again. The soldiers seemed to be out on an active patrol of the area.

"Any idea how many of them there are…?" Touma asked.

"There are three of them; I can see them." Mikoto asked. Her extra-ordinary sight abilities thanks to her Esper ability came in handy.

"What's the plan…?" Stiyl asked.

"They won't let us pass until they are all down… Misaka, can you be my eyes? The flashing lights don't help me out very well…" Touma asked, slipping his left hand down Mikoto's arm and grabbing hold of her hand. This act made Mikoto blush hard, but it couldn't be seen in the dim darkness.

"S-sure… J-just follow me and k-keep close…" Mikoto stuttered. Slowly they made their way forward, sneaking up on a soldier from behind. Like before, Touma punched the lone soldier, causing a scream and the soldier to dissolve. The remaining two soldiers turned and opened fire, but Mikoto discharged a large blast of electricity, the force deflecting all the bullets, as well as the electric discharge lighting up the area. Touma rushed one of the two guards and punched, the soldier dissolving. The final man turned to open fire, but a massive fireball struck his side, the resulting explosion knocking the soldier off his feet and lit him on fire. Quickly, Touma hit the soldier with his Imagine Breaker to permanently end the last assailant. All sound ceased after that, and Touma let out a relieved sigh.

"Close one…" Touma said.

"This place can even fabricate human lives and give them the notion to kill us on sight…" Stiyl said.

"We were told that they could do make living things… but able to go this far; just how powerful is this system?" Mikoto said.

"If it can fabricate the complexity of human existence, and control that existence… its potential is limitless." Stiyl replied.

"I wonder how far deep into this place we are… seems like we were running from those wolves for ages." Touma said, starting forward.

"No idea… let's see if we can find a way back up." Mikoto said. After a few minutes of walking, they eventually came up to a staircase of sorts, leading back up. They were in an entirely new area, with absolutely no sign of the wolves from before. With a relieved sigh, they pressed on down the path given to them by the cyber maze.

**-Accelerator's Location-**

"Pain in my ass…" Accelerator said; an odd array of corpses in his wake. The bodies he struck down kept repairing themselves and getting back up, but each time they went down just as fast as it took them to get back on their feet. And simply, they eventually stopped getting up. Among the bodies lay some teenager with orange hair dressed in black with a giant cleaver, and some ninja dressed in orange, these two were probably the toughest out of the assailants, but they fell just as easily as the rest.

"What's wrong? I thought you'd like a free excuse to rip people in half." Worst asked from a distance; far away from the battlefield.

"Like I could enjoy even the slightest bit of tearing a fabricated person a new asshole…" Accelerator replied. "More importantly, why the fuck are you staying back there? Fucking scared?"

"I'm having fun." Worst replied with a snicker. She discharged a blast of purple lightning into a random body, and it flashed then vanished. "Misaka's lightning seems to fry these guys; hits an off switch and deletes them."

"And why the fuck didn't you try that earlier?" Accelerator asked.

"Tou-san looked like he was having fun." Worst replied.

"Tch… clear the field already. Don't want any of these fuckers suddenly coming back like they think they stand a chance." Accelerator said. Worst discharged an electrical pulse over the area, and as it traveled outward the bodies started to vanish, eventually leaving a clear area. Afterward, Accelerator began to silently walk away.

"Not even a little thank you? Misaka is hurt." Worst joked, following the albino esper.

"If you're fishing for compliments, you can fuck off." Accelerator replied.

"Tou-san is being all mean… maybe Misaka should suddenly forget about her powers and let Tou-san do all the fighting~" Worst said. Accelerator was about to retort, but suddenly a large mob of various warriors and animals came charging toward the duo, straight down the path. Just as quickly as they appeared, however, a large explosion of energy decimated the mob.

"Tch… what happened to trying to make me do all the work you bitch?" Accelerator said coldly. Worst, however, was giving a look of confusion.

"Misaka… Misaka didn't do that." Worst replied.

"Huh? Then who the fuck did?" Accelerator asked in a sarcastic tone. He got his answer however, as a large eight-armed man wielding a large golden blade burst from the smoke from the explosion, charging the number one esper.

**-Gilgamesh's Location-**

"S-slow down Sir Gilgamesh!" Enkidu cried out, still chasing after her master.

"N-n-no way! I'm not giving any of these bastards a chance at killing me again!" Gilgamesh replied, keeping up a full speed run. He had transformed into his eight-armed form, and was running around with Excalibur in hand, slashing occasionally at random people or creatures that would approach him. Unlike his other weapons, Excalibur seemed to kill them outright, while they would revive eventually if hit by his other weapons.

"J-just stop for a moment! I'm confused! What is this rift you're talking about!?" Enkidu shouted. Gilgamesh slid to a stop, just narrowly missing the entrance to a corridor, and slid into a wall, being brought to a forced stop. "Please… talk to me Sir Gilgamesh! What's wrong?" Gilgamesh looked around, and saw that for now, the coast is clear.

"I'm… I'm not from this world, Enkidu… I was separated from my world a long time ago because I was sucked into a cleft dimension called the void… lots of monsters... but it's also connected to just about every other dimension… so I went dimension hopping trying to find my way home and I eventually found my way here…" Gilgamesh replied; in his somewhat more relaxed state, he finally realized he wasn't in the dimension he himself was talking about.

"But… why were you so scared?" Enkidu asked.

"B-because… I don't wanna go back there yet!" Gilgamesh replied. "The people I know, the friends I've made, I don't want to abandon them just yet, especially if there is no guarantee I can return!"

"…Then don't worry! You are still very much in the hands of the people you care about! And even if you have to leave… I'll come with you! So that even if you're far away, you still have a little piece of your life here with you always!" Enkidu replied. Silence followed, and shortly, a few tears fell from Gilgamesh's glowing eyes. "S-Sir Gilgamesh…? Are you crying…?"

"N-no! I'm not crying! I'm nooooooooooot!" Gilgamesh turned his head and buried his hand into his arm, hiding the sudden flow of tears stemming from his moved heart. Suddenly, a large array of loud noises, sounding like a large group of people, came from the hall next to them.

"Sir Gilgamesh…" Enkidu said.

"Right… back to work!" Gilgamesh turned toward the entryway and charged, swinging wildly down the path. Each and every foe he slew vanished into data as he ran. He eventually came across a large mob of them, and noticed Excalibur was glowing as he swung, and a massive explosion resulted. Just as immediately as the explosion occurred, he charged straight ahead and swung his blade at the first thing he saw… which just so happened to be a white-haired albino teenager.

**-Touma's Location-**

"It's been… way too quiet…" Touma said.

"Yeah… no one has come after us in a while…" Mikoto said. "Kinda… lets you enjoy the scenery a bit though…"

"…I wonder how much time and effort they put into this little world just to find out their project got canned… it really feels like they put their heart and soul into this." Touma replied.

"The creation of life is always a beautiful thing." Stiyl said. "Even this fabricated world and its fabricated occupants have captured such a thing."

"Kinda makes me feel bad for having to use this…" Touma said, holding up his right hand.

"They are created in here to try and kill you… not much choice in the matter." Stiyl replied.

"I just hope we can put an end to this insanity…" Touma said. Suddenly a large explosion shook the whole area, appearing to come from a distance. Smoke started to rise into the sky.

"What the hell… is someone else down here fighting!?" Mikoto shouted.

"Don't know; let's check it out!" Touma replied, starting to run to find any sort of path to make it there as soon as possible

**-Explosion Site-**

"What the hell… you're not like another one of these bastards…!" Gilgamesh said.

"Tch, you're one to fucking talk!" Accelerator replied. Their attacks collided; Gilgamesh's Excalibur met Accelerator's fist, and locked in place, trying to cover-come the other fighter.

'What the hell… Excalibur was able to cleave right through all the other guys without a problem, why can't I cut this one!?' Gilgamesh thought.

'Fuck… I don't know what the fuck this sword is… the values keep changing… it feels like fucking dark matter!' Accelerator thought. Gilgamesh pulled back and swung again, hitting Accelerator on the head, the impact causing some pain to Accelerator due to Excalibur's nature, but the blade didn't pierce Accelerator's skin. Gilgamesh swung again, and this time, Accelerator stepped to the side, dodging the blade, and then smashed his fist into Gilgamesh's face, amplifying the force with Vector Change, launching the large man through a wall, demolishing it. Accelerator clicked his tongue; he needed to be more careful. If he took out the power, this little mission would get a shit-ton harder, he thought. Gilgamesh suddenly burst from the rubble with six weapons, the ones he wielded when he first transformed. He tried to attack Accelerator with all six weapons, only to have Accelerator's ability destroy all six. Gilgamesh suddenly thrust with Excalibur into Accelerator, Vector Change just barely holding off the legendary blade. Gilgamesh held up all of his extra arms, after using Weapon Regeneration and putting away his other weapons, each one aiming at the Number One esper.

"Rocket Punch!" All six of his free hands suddenly shot off and slammed into Accelerator's body. The Number One esper was using all of his focus to keep Excalibur at bay, so he couldn't use his Vector Change to stop the assault, and wound up launched into a wall, very like the man he was fighting. Worst was watching from a safe distance, keeping an eye on the fight, as was Enkidu, though from across the hall. "Ha-ha! I don't know what freaky powers you got, but it looks like I win!" Suddenly a large chunk of the wall flew and nailed Gilgamesh right in the face, knocking the eight-armed man onto his back. Accelerator stepped out from the rubble, appearing hurt, but more obvious was that Accelerator was angry. Very, VERY, angry. Gilgamesh jumped back onto his feet, new hands on each of his extra arms. They were about to charge again at each other again when a voice called out.

"Hold up you two! Stop fighting!" Touma said, running toward the two from an intersecting corridor, being followed by Mikoto and Stiyl.

"Fucking hero… trying to stop me again!?" Accelerator spat in anger.

"Hi Touma! You caught up with me faster than I expected!" Gilgamesh said, waving toward the Imagine Breaker.

"…You fucking know him?" Accelerator asked.

"Yeah… and you do too?" Gilgamesh asked.

"I said stop fighting…" Touma said as he approached. "Accelerator…? What are you doing here?"

"Tch… wouldn't you like to know." Accelerator replied.

"Yeah… that's kind of why I asked…" Touma replied, and sighed when he realized he wasn't going to get an answer.

"Tou-san, stop being such a tsundere." Worst said, walking toward them. "Say that you were worried about your possible boyfriend and that you wanted to keep him safe."

"Fuck off Worst, fucking twisted fantasies." Accelerator replied with a huff. Enkidu approached the group, but remained silent, only nodding toward Gilgamesh.

"So… now there are seven of us… that's a good sign." Touma said.

"But where do we go from here…?" Mikoto asked. Accelerator pointed at a wall.

"That is the way to central processing, and further along there would be the core. The bitch behind this shit is probably that way." Accelerator said.

"Then there is only one thing to do!" Gilgamesh said, lifting up a now glowing Excalibur. Before Accelerator could stop him, Gilgamesh swung his blade, discharging a massive blue energy blast that smashed right through the walls down the way Accelerator pointed. The lights flickered, but managed to stay on. "There! The path is clear!"

"Fucking dip-shit! You could have fucking killed the damn power! Then we'd be stuck in the dark!' Accelerator shouted.

"Eh, so what? We'd just have to find the giant hole I made then go straight." Gilgamesh shrugged. The albino esper was about to say more but Touma stopped him, shaking his head.

"Let's… let's just go… ok? Get this done, so we can all go home." Touma said. Accelerator clicked his tongue, but didn't say anything more. The group of seven started their day down the path made for them, eager to end this once and for all.

**-Dynamo's Location-**

"Hi hi! It's little Dynamo again!"

"What do you need Dynamo?" Shurui asked over the radio.

"Well… they figured out a few ways around the DST… so I was wondering if I could borrow big shadow for a distraction… throw them off a bit, you know the drill." Dynamo replied.

"…You want to borrow the Shadow Devil?" Shurui asked. "Are you… sure that's necessary?"

"Better safe than sorry…" Dynamo replied.

"…Alright then. Just tell me where you want him." Shurui replied after a long pause.

"Understood… I'll send you the location where he'd be best sent to now." Dynamo said, typing away on the computer in front of him.

* * *

**I wonder who all well get the reference to the Shadow Devil... I guess I can only wait and see!**

**I'll see you all next time... right? Leave a review if you liked it and tell me how I am doing! ^^**


	15. Shadow Devil

**Hello there everyone! Here is chapter 15 for you! Enjoy! ^^**

* * *

"Hey Accelerator… where did you get the layout for this place?" Touma asked.

"Computer upstairs. A little hacking into their network and I got my hands on the full schematic of the above floors and the basement, and some key information about the place." Accelerator replied. "The reason I said be fucking careful is because of how the basement gets all fucked up when someone uses it, the pain power generator for the building could be behind any wall."

"I-I see…" Touma trailed off. "Where are we going exactly…?"

"…There is a small hub-room that connects to the core of the facility. It has two paths and an elevator." Accelerator replied. "One path heads to Central Processing; that's where the program for the DST is run and operated from. The second leads to the Main Research Office, were the majority of the actual figures and study of the process took place, as well as recording results from their experiments."

"What about the elevator? Where does that go?" Mikoto asked.

"It heads to a sub-level, which houses the actual hardware for the DST. It's called the Internecine Driver. Throughout the facility, emitters are used to create the things by the DST, but the actual hardware is all hooked up to the Internecine Driver. If that goes down, the DST is finished for good." Accelerator answered.

"So take down one little room and the entire facility is rendered inoperable…" Mikoto said.

"Fucking problem is that there is some kind of security system down there. Couldn't get access to details about it, even with the facility master codes." Accelerator replied.

"If the master codes don't work… then the security for the Internecine Driver is of a higher security clearance than the entire project on its own, including the Internecine itself?" Mikoto asked.

"I don't fucking know. Doesn't make a single fucking shit worth of sense to me."

"Well… maybe the higher-ups were worried that their own staffs would back-hack the security and use it for their own reasons?" Touma asked.

"That makes less sense, dip-shit. Why would you give security to people you don't fucking trust with it?" Accelerator replied.

"Maybe… maybe there is something about the Internecine that they didn't want their staff to know about it, thus they can't disable the higher security they can't disable without permission from their superiors…?" Touma asked.

"...Research on new tech with a goal, the DST, without the users knowing how the hardware is configured. The Internecine Driver must be part of some deep shit for something like that." Accelerator replied. "Sounds like typical Academy City bullshit to me though. Now it just makes me wonder why they'd abandon the project, along with a device that is so important."

"Perhaps the DST was just a testing project for the Internecine, and once they got the results they wanted, they went on to bigger and better designs?" Mikoto suggested.

"That'd explain why they'd abandon it, but not why they would leave the security on instead of dismantling it and moving it to a different facility." Accelerator replied.

"Man… this stuff is making my head hurt…" Touma sighed, rubbing the back of his head.

"Welcome to the dark side of Academy City then." Accelerator replied. The maze seemed to be coming to an end, with a narrow pathway, seemingly engulfed with the same stuff covering the entire area, the path plain and visible. Gilgamesh walked up to it, knocking on it a few times.

"Yup… solid. This is way too big for me." Gilgamesh said. His massive size making it clear that he could not proceed from this point. "Unless I can break it…" Suddenly, the continuous sounds of footsteps, stomps, and other assorted things were coming from behind. Soldiers, warriors, monsters; all sorts of things were suddenly coming into existence behind him, and were charging their position.

"Oh man… such misfortune…" Touma sighed. "Another wave of these- whoa!" Touma was suddenly thrown back as Gilgamesh stepped ahead of them. Enkidu was by his side.

"You guys go on ahead." Gilgamesh said.

"But what about you…?" Touma asked. Gilgamesh laughed.

"What about me? I'm too big to go through the hallway! Unless you're fine with me possibly hitting something else to make this base go super-explosion, this is probably the best option!" Gilgamesh said as Touma gave him a worried look. "Hey, hey now! Don't give me that face! Remember; I, Gilgamesh, am the strongest swordsman in the world with endurance second to none! If these guys think they can defeat me, the great Gilgamesh, then I have a serious lesson to teach them!" Gilgamesh pounded his chest for emphasis.

"Your self-boasting is getting worse…" Touma groaned. "What about you, Enkidu…?"

"I will follow Sir Gilgamesh wherever his travels take him, even if it is into the very depths of hell itself. This situation is no different." Enkidu replied.

"So… you're sure about this then?" Touma asked.

"Of course, of course! Shoo shoo, go do the job you wanna do." Gilgamesh waved Touma on.

"Fine… if you're sure about…" Touma sighed. "Just be careful, ok?" Gilgamesh simply nodded, and accepting the answer, the remaining five started their way down the tunnel presented to them. It wasn't long before some kind of door shut behind them, leaving Gilgamesh and Enkidu alone to deal with the fast approaching hoard.

"So… that's that then. What is the plan, Sir Gilgamesh?" Enkidu asked. Gilgamesh eyed the oncoming hoard. When they got close enough, he started to hear the ones capable of speech bragging, threatening, and insulting Gilgamesh. To these remarks, Gilgamesh felt the urge to speak.

"Fools! You face the mightiest swordsman in the entire world! You face me, the great Gilgamesh!" He shouted, suddenly drawing his star weapons of choice, filling all eight of his hands. "ALL YOUR WEAPONS ARE FORFEITING TO ME!" He shouted loudly, charging into the on-coming hoard, ready for a good old-fashioned fight to the death.

**-Main Hub-**

"So this is it…" Touma said, entering the large circular room. It seemed rather plane, a white floor, and what looked like black screens all around the room. They noticed that the door closed behind them, but concluded that it didn't matter.

"The hall straight ahead will go to the Main Research office, the path to the left will take you to Central Processing." Accelerator said.

"And where are you going to go Tou-san?" Worst asked.

"I'm going to go smash the Internecine Driver to fucking pieces." Accelerator replied.

"Then I guess that's where Misaka is going too!" Worst said casually.

"Tch! Yeah fucking right, you'll just get in my way." Accelerator spat.

"But Misaka's special electric frequency can kill all these fabricated bastards real easy, surely Misaka can blow up a tiny little machine with it too."

"That's why you should stay with these fuckers. They'll need you more than me." Accelerator shouted.

"Knock it off for a moment!" Mikoto shouted. "Something… something doesn't feel right in this room."

"What's wrong Misaka?" Touma asked.

"It feels… it feels like we're being watched." Mikoto replied. Suddenly, ripples along the black screens, appearing like static, as suddenly a bright orange eye opened up on the screen farthest from them. "Eww! What the hell is that!?"

"Oh no…" Stiyl said. Suddenly blobs of darkness suddenly began to shoot off from the screens around the room, each one colliding violently with each other in the middle of the room. As they came off, the screens started to light up with the purple distortion of a strange image, resembling the letter 'W.' The blobs continued to collide until all the screens were completely clear, and then the collided blobs fell to the ground, forming a large black puddle, before it suddenly rose and formed into an large black sphere that hung in the air. What looked like a set of arms and legs seemed to force their way out of the sphere, the sphere dropping down to the ground with a heavy thud after its legs fully formed. And finally, the large bright orange eye opened up dead center of the sphere, and seemed to stare down the five occupants of its room.

"Misaka has got it; another big baddy from the DST!" Worst replied, purple electricity sparking from her body.

"Stop you idiot! It's not what you think!" Stiyl shouted. Worst ignored Stiyl's comment, and unleashed a wave of electricity. The giant sphere raised its arms to cover its eye as the massive burst of electricity collided with it. It seemed to wash over its body, but after a moment, the electricity vanished and only smoke seemed to emanate its body, which did not budge an inch.

"Eh… That's not supposed to happen…" Worst said with an awkward smile. Slowly the sphere moved its arm out of the way, and the eye focused its vision on Worst, and it started to glow.

"Get of the way, idiot!" Accelerator pulled on Worst's arm just as a blast of energy fired off from the sphere's eye, narrowly missing Worst and exploding the moment it touched the ground.

"…Stiyl…" Touma started. "What the hell is that…?" He asked; a notable tone of concern on his voice.

"It is a summon… a rather annoying one…" Stiyl said. "It's called the Shadow Devil… its body is made of a thick tar-like substance. Its seal, and thus, its only weakness is its eye… so it can only be hurt when it is looking at you. To make it even more annoying, it can show up anywhere on his body." Suddenly the orange eye closed, and the arms and legs of the Shadow Devil back into its sphere-like body, and then it divided up into countless numbers of smaller spheres. "…And it can do stuff like this. Look out!" The small spheres suddenly shot of in random directions, and then focused their attention on the group of five. The countless numbers made the constant assault difficult to deal with. The only one who escaped the massive constant barrage without a single injury was Accelerator, due to his Vector Change letting him reflect the small blobs of tar.

"Tch! Annoying bastard!" Accelerator shouted, smacking one of the spheres out of the air. Suddenly, one stopped right in front of Accelerator's face. "Ah? The fuck you want?" Suddenly another one stopped, to his left. And then another to his right. It soon became clear what was happening as more of the spheres stopped; the Shadow Devil was trying to completely in case Accelerator in its body, which would cause him to suffocate and die. He slammed his fist into a large section of the blobs that had fused together, only to find that rather than it was being forcefully ripped apart, it instead absorbed the impact, the tar wrapping around Accelerator's hand. "The fuck…!?" The blobs seemed to then converge on Accelerator's body, slowly covering him in the tar as Accelerator viciously fought to shake off the Shadow Devil.

Crack. The section of tar that was on Accelerator's right hand vanished at the Imagine Breaker's touch. Touma quickly then used his right hand to rid Accelerator of the remaining pieces as well as to pull Accelerator out of the way of further assault.

"You alright?" Touma asked.

"Tch… fucking hero." Accelerator replied. Suddenly a large amount of the blobs converged together, and then charged in a stream right toward Touma. On reflex Touma lifted up his right arm to meet the assault; the tar quickly vanishing after it made contact with the Imagine Breaker.

"So… my right arm works on the tar…" Touma replied. Suddenly, the full body of the Shadow Devil appeared, standing behind Touma; smashing its right hand down on him while looking with its wide orange eye. Touma lifted up his right hand to block the struck, which was successful, but a constant stream of tar shout out of the stub that was the Shadow Devil's arm, the constant stream preventing Touma from moving. "You… gotta be kidding me!? It's reproducing its own body that fast!?" Touma said, noting that despite the endless wave of tar, the Shadow Devil's mass was not decreasing at all.

"You… get away from him!" Mikoto shouted. She discharged a massive burst of electrical energy as the eye of the Shadow Devil turned to face her, the eye ending up taking the full force of the blast. Electricity seemed to run through the massive figure and it seemed to stumble backwards in pain, slowly managing to raise its arms up to block the blast. When the discharge of electricity was no longer hitting the eye, it became noticeable that the orange eye seemed to be damaged, even bleeding like an injury, and the eye formed what could only be described as an annoyed expression. Slowly, it started to walk forward toward Mikoto, using its arms to block electrical outbursts. Did didn't matter to Mikoto; the moment it dropped its guard she'd blast its eye with a full electrical force. The Shadow Devil eventually reached to just in front of Mikoto and raised its arms, as if it was about to smash them down on top of her. Mikoto was about to act, but she noticed something was wrong; the eye was gone. "W-what!?" Unable to locate the eye on the creature's body, she was left at the mercy of the Shadow Devil as it tried to drive its arms down onto her.

"…Swallow Myself, turn me into power! **Innocentius!"**Stiyl shouted. Suddenly, just under the shadow devil a massive flame erupted, and eventually took the form of a large humanoid fire monster. The arms of Innocentius shot up and smashed into the Shadow Devil's arms, throwing the large tar monster off balance. The Shadow Devil's eye opened up, possibly to see what happened, and suddenly Innocentius slammed one of its arms into the Shadow Devil's eye, the sudden force of the attack knocking the Shadow Devil backward, it falling onto its back. The Shadow Devil sank into the ground and shot back up, its eye bleeding much more than before, and now giving off an angry expression. Furious, the large monster fired off blast after blast into Innocentius' body, only to have the fire monster reform after each one, eventually Innocentius getting close enough to try and slam both of its arms down on the tar monster; the Shadow Devil responding by reaching up and grabbing both arms, holding them in place, as the Shadow Devil fired off another barrage of blasts into Innocentius' body in an attempt to dispel it.

"Quickly; while I have it contained, get out of here!" Stiyl shouted, unsure of how long he could hold off the massive Shadow Devil with his own summon.

"I have a better idea… eat this you bastard!" Mikoto replied, flipping a coin into the air. Holding her outstretched hand, she waited for the coin to descend, and flicked it, discharging her famous Railgun directly into Innocentius' backside. The blast caused Innocentius' body to disperse, at least temporarily it would seem, but more importantly, the Railgun nailed the Shadow Devil right in its exposed eye; the blast taking a good chunk of the Shadow Devil's center out as the blast exited through the back; exiting at an angel into the roof of the room. With its main source of power gone, the Shadow Devil twitched slightly, before random sections of it grew unstable and started to explode violently; the final explosion launching tar throughout the room, only to have it slowly fade away into nothingness, as if it had never been there to begin with. Innocentius reformed by Stiyl's side, only to have the magician dispel the beast. With the Shadow Devil's death, the screens had all turned off as well.

"Is everyone alright?" Stiyl asked.

"Yeah… fine…" Mikoto replied.

"What an annoying bastard." Accelerator said clicking his tongue.

"Misaka's ass hurts." Worst said. "Tou-san! Rub it so it will feel better!"

"Fuck off." Accelerator replied.

"That thing was dangerous… such misfortune." Touma sighed.

"At least it's settled… what's the plan from here?" Stiyl asked.

"Like I fucking said; I'm going to smash the Internecine Driver." Accelerator replied. "And apparently the brat is coming with me." He pointed to Worst, who only replied with a rather devilish smile.

"Right… how about you Stiyl?" Touma asked.

"I'm going to spend some time back in here…" Stiyl replied. "Innocentius takes a lot of magical power to summon; I'll need some time before I can do much more."

"And with Gilgamesh and Enkidu up front holding off the flow of attackers… that just leaves you and me… with just the Main Research Office… where the magician is…" Mikoto trailed.

"…And Central Processing, where Dynamo is waiting." Touma finished.

"…You're going to go after Dynamo, aren't you?" Mikoto asked. Touma looked up with a surprised look, and then nodded.

"Sorry, Misaka… I have to do this." Touma said. Mikoto eyed him for a moment before replying.

"…It's fine. I've already proven I can take down Dynamo." Mikoto replied. "Besides; Dynamo was never my enemy… my enemy is somewhere beyond those doors…" She looked toward the door leading to the Main Research Office.

"Are… you really ok with this?" Touma asked, somewhat surprised.

"Yeah! It's fine. I know Touma; so I know Touma will try and save that Dynamo who is going so far just for a girl he wants to make happy." Mikoto replied, smiling. "Just come find me after you're done, ok? If you don't, I'll have to shock you really bad!"

"…Even in a situation like this, Biri-Biri would threaten to kill me. Such misfortune." Touma replied.

"It's not Biri-Biri; it's Misaka Mikoto." Mikoto replied simply, keeping her smile. Slowly, Touma smiled back.

"…Right." Touma replied. "Don't worry Mikoto; this unfortunate guy will be back before you know it. And then we could lay this to rest once and for all and go home."

"Just remember that promise, Touma." Mikoto replied. The conversation over, the parties in question moved toward their respected given path, ready to dive into their respective goals, ready to do whatever it took for a happy ending.

* * *

**The Final Climax is slowly approaching... thank you to everyone who has been supporting this story, it really means a lot to me. Have a good day, everyone! ^^**


	16. Found

**Welcome back my friends... things are starting to get good...! I hope you enjoy! ^^**

* * *

It's one step after another; the path before Touma was a straight one. The lights flickered daintily, but he hardly noticed. He was focused on what was coming. The door at the end was getting closer; he knew what was behind it. Just behind this metal door, his final confrontation with the enigma simply known as Dynamo was waiting. He knew that no matter how much they spoke, their argument wouldn't have a clear winner until one of them went down. But the words he would speak; how he would declare his side did not lack importance. How he defined the position he would oppose the Plasma Caster with was the ground he would stand up on and overcome Dynamo, either physically, logically, or emotionally.

Dynamo's reasons were clear; he was doing all of this for the woman; the magician. To him, she was someone to trust, follow, protect… and make happy, even if the whole world had to burn to make it happen.

He stood in front of the door, thinking over how the scene would play out in his head. He knew what the likely outcome was going to be if he opened that door. But, he opened the door anyway, stepping into the steel room, computers and hard-drives imbedded into the walls. There were consoles, moving parts, electrical components, and wires; spread all along the walls. In the middle, Dynamo stood with an amused smile on his face and a single hand on his hip.

"Hey there, fancy meeting you here." Dynamo said. Touma didn't reply, and mealy closed the door behind him. "What's wrong? You're not very talkative today."

"That's enough, Dynamo." Touma replied.

"Ah? Enough? Enough of what? The game is almost over; don't tell me you're the kind of guy who quits right before the final boss." Dynamo replied.

"You don't have to act anymore." Touma replied. "You've done enough."

"My, my… someone is confident today." Dynamo said. "What's next? A speech about how 'I'm going to shatter that messed up illusion of destroying the world,' or something?"

"You don't care what happens to the world; you just want to make your partner happy." Touma replied. "You know what you're doing, you know why you're doing it, and you know what is at stake. Your devotion is no illusion or fabrication."

"…Talking with some big words there. Just what are you trying to say?" Dynamo asked, his joking demeanor gone.

"I'm saying you don't have to fight anymore. There is another option other than rewriting the world."

"And what would that be?"

"Showing her that this world she wants to end isn't as hopeless as she thinks it is." Touma replied. "You've done plenty enough for her, and have stood by her side. Let us do the rest, please stand aside."

"…Sorry; doesn't work like that." Dynamo replied with a stern face. "I do not doubt you or anything like that… but my job is to stand by her side until the very end; you might just be able to bring that end about, but that doesn't change my position. My job is to fight for whatever she desires, and until those desires change, that is exactly what I'll do."

"You don't have to break yourself for her."

"Yes; I do." Dynamo replied. "It is what I decided. My decision, my choice. The end may be close, but if you think I'm going to stand aside that easily, you are horribly mistaken. I'll do whatever it takes to make her smile!"

"To care for someone else doesn't mean to do every little thing for them! Doing what you feel is necessary to make someone happy is fine, but that doesn't mean to just agree and follow through on every single ideal they have! You should argue; push back with what you disagree with! Blindly agreeing with someone just because you care about them makes it so you both play the part of the fool! And going so far that you break who you are just for that delusion of servitude makes it even worse!" Touma shouted. "Dynamo! I'm going to shatter that messed up illusion you casted on your own heart!"

"…So… this is how it is going to happen then." Dynamo said. "You know what they say… in an argument like this, it's the last man standing who is the right one."

"This doesn't have to happen…"

"Of course it does… I'm the unruly hacker threatening to break apart and shatter the entire game, and you're the admin tasked with the job of preventing that." Dynamo formed a pink blade of plasma in his hand. "If you want to save this world, you're going to have to fight for it. This little Dynamo won't learn his lesson very easily."

"Fine then… but when this is all over, everyone will be smiling… even you, Dynamo!" Touma shouted. Dynamo clicked his teeth and lunged, swinging his plasma sword down on top of the Imagine Breaker.

**-Accelerator's Location-**

"…Number One; is an elevator supposed to take this long?" Worst asked.

"I don't fucking know; underground system is big. The hardware here is fucking insane…" Accelerator replied. "I can't believe that all of this is just for one simple system."

"What are we going to do once we make it to this Internecine Driver…?"

"I'm going to smash it before the security takes notice." Accelerator replied. "You can do whatever."

"You're being condescending again, Tou-san…" Worst groaned.

"This coming from the brat who followed me just to annoy the shit out of me? Fuck off already." Accelerator shouted.

"Ah? You've been telling me to do that an awful lot today~ Do you really want to see Misaka's naughty bits that badly?"

"Not fucking literally…!" Accelerator replied. The elevator suddenly stopped. It opened out into a hallway with a small blue tint to it. The color came from the lights, which shined a dull blue. Accelerator walked out and worst followed, and it eventually opened up into a rectangular room which also presented that ethereal blue hue. Two screens that stretched the room's length ran along the sides, and seemed to be transmitting data; constant streams and flickers shined. The room seemed pristine, perfect. Not a single flaw. Against the wall on the far end of the room, there was a large metal device, constantly flickering with all sorts of different lights, along with a small console on the front to serve as an interface.

"No alarms yet…" Worst said.

"That's good… let's keep it that way." Accelerator said, slowly stepping forward.

"Any idea why it's called the Internecine Driver? Internecine can mean mutually destructive you know…"

"No clue…" Accelerator replied. Once the duo reached about half way through the room, a deep sound played and the lights suddenly turned to a dark red. "The hell…?"

"_**INTRUDER DETECTED."**_ Played overhead. Suddenly a bright red blast of energy erupted from high in the room. The duo split to dodge the attack, and looked up to see the attacker. It was a large machine; probably about the side of an average man. It was sleek in a shiny red and black paint job. Instead of feet it appeared to have boosters, and its arms ended with small cannons rather than hands. The most prominent feature was the large cannon protruding from its chest. With a loud cranking sound the cannon started to recede, its body shifting around somewhat, and when it was done, the cannon's barrel appeared to be now protruding from the machine's back, and the machine's flat black head was easily visible. Its eyes were a bright glowing blue, and seemed to be staring them both down.

"What the hell is that…?" Worst asked.

"The security… shit. What a pain." Accelerator replied.

"_**Destroy…"**_ Came from the machine in a deep voice. _**"Destroy… destroy. Destroy. Destroy. Destroy."**_ The machine kept chanting it, each time its voice got more and more high pitched.

"Tou-san… Misaka… has a thought." Worst slowly said.

"Ah? And what the fuck would that be?" Accelerator replied.

"What if this DST stuff wasn't designed to try and replicate life… but as a way to test this thing? It looks like a really expensive piece of hardware in comparison to all the other robots in the city…"

"…Shit. Pain in my ass…" Accelerator replied. "Watch your step and don't get yourself killed, brat. I don't want to be the fucking one to tell Last Order her little sister got shot in the face."

"That's what I was going to say Number One." Worst replied. Suddenly the sides of the machine's legs opened up, launching a vast barrage of missiles, effectively carpet-bombing the middle of the room.

**-Gilgamesh's Location-**

"T-that's… quite a few of them, eh…?" Gilgamesh asked, effectively blocking off the pathway with his massive form.

"I'm questioning your decision to come in here just you and me…" Enkidu replied.

"It's not like we were expecting an army when we were supposed to be infiltrating an abandoned building…"

"…True." Enkidu agreed. They had felled many of the fabricated soldiers and creatures, but many seemed to come into existence as soon as others were slain. "This is going to take awhile…"

"I'm just glad they stopped endlessly reviving themselves." Gilgamesh said with a cheery tone. "Now we can kill them with anything without them coming back to life!"

"More are still coming into existence though…"

"Then we just have to kill them faster than they can spawn! Simple as that!" Gilgamesh shouted.

"Easier said than done…!" Enkidu groaned. "Here comes another wave!" A large group of attackers raced forward preparing whatever weapons or claws they had to attack, when a loud series of explosions rang out from up above. What happened couldn't be seen due to the fabricated sky. The assailants didn't stop… at least not until a series of rockets rained form the sky onto the attacking group, the explosions decimating the party. A series of long ropes suddenly came down from the sky as another barrage of rockets fired off into the large army. Varying amounts of armed men slid downward from the ropes, some armed with guns, some with swords, and some with heavy duty artillery. The also came in varying shapes and sizes, but one thing was a constant about each and every one of them.

They all wore a bandanna with the symbol of the Big Bridge proudly on their heads.

"Y-you guys… how you'd found me!?" Gilgamesh shouted.

"A weird guy with sunglasses and blond hair told us… at first we thought he was full of shit, but then he gave us some new toys to play with!" One of Gilgamesh's men said, hoisting a rocket launcher over his shoulder.

"So we came running! The only two who couldn't show up were Hassuru and Misogi. They apparently had some kind of other business they had to attend to."

"…Weird guy with sunglasses and blond hair…" Enkidu said to herself, remembering Tsuchimikado.

"You guys didn't have to come all the way here just for me, you know… I can take care of myself." Gilgamesh said.

"Nonsense!" One of his men shouted. "Anyone who messes with one of the Big Bridge messes with all of us, all the way from the weakest kid to the mightiest leader!"

"That's how it always has been and it won't change, not now, not ever!"

"Even if it's the big boss who can take down an entire army; we will lay down our lives to protect our leader!" All of them shouted in unison.

"Y-you guys…!" Gilgamesh said, holding his arm up to cover his eyes, a little liquid seeping out.

"Gilgamesh, are you crying?" Enkidu asked.

"I'm not crying! I'm nooooooooooot!" Gilgamesh turned his head to hide his moved tears. The opposing army suddenly started to mobilize, their numbers quickly regenerating.

"Damn… it's like someone put these guys on an infinite summoning loop…" Enkidu said.

"The answer is just as I said… We just have to kill them faster than they can be created!" Gilgamesh suddenly shouted, pounding his chest. There are 100 of us! We can take them down easy!"

"If it is a war of numbers, I think they win… but…" Enkidu trailed off.

"We got the big guns to trip up their numbers! It's a matter of quality over quantity!" One of Gilgamesh's men shouted, holding up his rocket launcher, earning cheers of approval from the rest of the Big Bridge guild.

"You heard them, Enkidu!" Gilgamesh shouted, holding up all 8 of his arms, each one holding a weapon. "Let's crash this party!" With cheers of approval, every single member of the Thieves Guild known as Big Bridge charged into battle; their leader included, determined to slash right through the massive numbers of their constantly summoned foes.

**-Mikoto's Location-**

"…Just how long is this hallway?" Mikoto groaned. It must have been ten minutes since she started her way down the middle path. She was feeling anxious; at the end of this hall was the person behind everything. The one who erased everyone's memory of her. The one who tricked Gilgamesh and his men into coming here. The one trying to rewrite existence itself. A lone woman simply named Shurui. It was eating at her; why was she the target? Why not some other esper? She finally reached the end of the long hallway. The door was open, giving a weird vibe. She walked inside and was immediately greeted by a sudden ball of red energy flying at her. Mikoto quickly dodged as the blast hit; the explosion making a low-pitched sound. Suddenly three more flew, and once again, Mikoto managed to dodge them. Looking around, Mikoto eventually noticed a single woman with long brown hair and green eyes, and was holding a bright red ball of energy in her right hand.

"…You. You're her… aren't you?" Mikoto asked slowly.

"Yes. Simply put; I am Kureiji Shurui. My magic name is Proditus674; the one who never asked for betrayal." The woman said. "And yes; I am the one who has created the series of events up until this point."

"…What was that attack just now?" Mikoto asked.

"Red Flare." Shurui replied. "Super-heated unstable energy that explodes and incinerates anything it touches… I need to work on my aim."

"…I have to know." Mikoto suddenly spoke up. "I am fully aware of your goal and what you're trying to do with it. But I have to know… why did you target me with Memory Trick? Why me and not someone else?"

"According to public records; you are rather famous as the only level five who worked their way up to that level from a level one." Shurui replied. "And on top of that; you are one of the few level fives without some kind of psychological disorder, and you are rather popular and well known… what better way to test and study the memory trick than to suddenly make the most well-known esper a no-body?"

"You know…. you put me through a lot of trouble…" Mikoto suddenly smirked, electricity firing off from her bangs.

"I casted it again; you know." Shurui said. "One final test before this world dies. The only ones who are aware of your existence in this city are the ones in this building."

"Even after the thought, you insist on making things more troublesome for me…" Mikoto said. "I'm going to have to punish you extra for that…!"

"Acting selfishly, are we?" Shurui asked.

"No… pay back for all the trouble you caused is just a fortunate by-product." Mikoto replied. "I'm here to protect the world that gave birth to one of the kindest people ever to exist…"

"Kamijou Touma…?" Shurui asked. "No… it would be more fitting to call him your lover now, wouldn't it?" Mikoto's face turned red, but her expression didn't change. "My… still so angry at me even though I created a situation in which you could stake your claim on a boy who is rather good at attracting other girl's attention? He could literally have ended up with any other girl or woman you know…"

"Oh no… I'm quite happy with the outcome I was able to get…" Mikoto said with a grin. "And I intend to thank you properly for making that outcome possible…"

"Ah? How so?"

"People will still be able to recognize you after I'm finished." Mikoto replied, launching a massive burst of electrical energy right toward the opposing magician.

* * *

**And here we are again.. are you guys liking the final arc here? I certainly hope so. ^^ See ya!**


	17. Diablo

"My, my… I never thought that the most popular esper in the city would be such a violent girl." Shurui said, emerging from the smoke created by the electrical blast. "Little ol' me is scared of what the Railgun will do to me."

"Stop babbling! Stalling for time isn't going to save you. I'm going to fry you extra crispy for all the trouble you're causing everyone." Mikoto replied, sparks flying from her bangs.

"…In a situation like this, I really don't stand a chance." Shurui said, earning a confused look from Mikoto. "I may have a wide range of magic, but I lack combat experience and tactics… something Dynamo has. And you've already beaten him, so logically; I shouldn't stand a single chance against you."

"What are you getting at…?" Mikoto asked slowly with a suspicious look.

"My point is that in a fight, I am inferior to Dynamo, but Dynamo is inferior to you." Shurui replied. "But if I were to create something that is superior to Dynamo, it is a possibility that it would be superior to you as well." Suddenly electricity shot off toward Shurui, who used her magic to create a wall of light to stop the attack.

"If you think I'll just sit back and let you summon something to kill me, you're dead wrong." Mikoto said. Shurui chuckled.

"Indeed, it would be wrong to assume that you'd just hang back and let me pull a monster out of my hat for you to fight…"

"Then what's the point of even telling me about it?"

"It's because… my little Diablo is already here." Shurui smiled. An odd pressure started to fill the air as the ceiling of the room started to distort. After a moment, a shattering sound was heard and a new figure was seen standing upside down on the ceiling. It must have been approximately 10ft tall, appearing muscular but also rather slender, and had large red bat-like wings on its back. Its skin was a bright gray, and its arms were abnormally long, reaching as far down as its feet. Below the elbow its arms thickened slightly, with three red spikes across the arms sides, and halfway down the forearm they seemed to be covered in red bandages, and had three large golden claws for fingers, that were also abnormally large. It wore a single leather shoulder pad on its left arm, and at its slim waist it wore long black pants that seemed to be buckled across down its legs, binding the clothing to its body and also befitted buckled up boots. It had long white hair that reached down to the middle of its back, and wore a horned golden mask with two eye-holes, both of which were on the left side of its face, and both eyes closed, with a scar of sorts crossing both of them. Suddenly the top eye opened, revealing a sinister eye that seemed as that of a snake, as its wings spread open, and it gradually lifted off, set itself right-side up, and slowly floated to the ground.

"What… what the hell is that thing…!?" Mikoto shouted.

"This, my little Railgun... is my little Diablo. A product of using magic to fabricate the very system that this facility houses… replacing the electrical current and drivers with my own magical power." Shurui replied. "Isn't he cute? I had to change its eyes because Dynamo was complaining, but I still find him quite adorable."

"That thing… adorable!? It looks sick and disgusting!" Mikoto shot back.

"That's an awful thing to say…" Shurui replied. "And… I don't think he liked it either." Suddenly Diablo's open eye began to glow a pale orange, and then fired off a thin blast of energy. Mikoto quickly dodged, but the creature followed up with another. Mikoto met the blast with a discharge of electricity, canceling it out.

"If that's all your boy-toy can do, I think this will end faster than I thought." Mikoto said; her hair sparking.

"…Ah yes… electricity." Shurui said. "Diablo; show our little Railgun a magic trick!" Diablo's single open eye focused on Mikoto, then suddenly its entire body began to spark with electricity, which was colored a deep-seated red. Before Mikoto could comment in surprise, Diablo raised its claw and swung it down, discharging a massive wave of electrical power. Mikoto fired off her own electricity to match it, and was surprised again by the blast's raw power. Eventually Mikoto's electricity won out, dispelling the attack.

"What… that THING is an Electromaster!?" Mikoto shouted.

"If one were to compare… while your ability is the Railgun, my little Diablo's would be called 'Red Lightning Hose.' its controllability is almost nil, but it adds a bit of an extra kick." Shurui replied. Diablo began to spark again, focusing the energy on the space in-between its horns, discharging a continuous blast of electricity. Mikoto quickly moved out of the way to dodge, but the blast seemed to tail her, following her as she ran.

"Ripping off my ability like that…!" Mikoto shouted.

"You make it sound like you're the only one ever born able to manipulate electricity; surely you can't be the only one, right?"

"Shut up!" Mikoto ran electricity through the ground up through Diablo's legs to try and retaliate. Mikoto was once again surprised when Diablo suddenly stopped its own discharge and its body tensed up, as if it was feeling pain. It didn't make a sound, not even a groan, but the fact that she was hurting this thing was more than obvious.

"Dear me… it seems in my quest to ramp up his output, I took away his ability to resist other sources of electrical power… either that or even after my effort, your electricity is still powerful enough to outclass his…" Shurui said in what seemed like genuine disappointment.

"You're science project is finished. And you're next." Mikoto said, halting her own electrical flow. Diablo slumped down to one knee, still not even making a sound.

"In a battle of electricity, my little Diablo may fall short. But my little Diablo has another neat ability…" Shurui replied.

"Duel Skill?" Mikoto asked. "You made a duel-skill esper monster…?"

"No… you'll find this ability quite linked with his given form. I'm not quite sure why, but I can change his ability from electricity to fire, to water, to ice. I can even mix and match. But no matter how many I make them all share this one particular trait…"

"Oh? And what… would… that… be…?" Mikoto's voice slowed as Diablo rose to his feet, the top eye now closed, and the bottom one now open. A sharp pink light shined from it, and she felt a very odd feeling wash over her. This led to the mentally picking, and then to her berating herself mentally, asking what is causing it. The world started to distort, and eventually fade into darkness. Inch by inch, the world would change into something grotesque, and then fade out. Mikoto tried to move, but she stepped into the darkness and she felt her foot sink into it. She tried to pull it out, but she was stuck, and seemed to be sucking her further down. The only space left was the area between her and Diablo now, and even that was being eaten away as the darkness consumed her. She tried to generate electricity, but found that her mind was clouded; unable to focus. No matter how much she tried, electricity never came. All that was left was her and Diablo now. Unlike everything else, it seemed that Diablo itself was being consumed as well. Inch after inch of its body was eaten away as the darkness had pulled her down to just above her modest chest, and eventually her neck. Her eyes suddenly felt heavy, unable to keep them open. All that was left of Diablo was his pink-glowing eye. Consciousness was failing her. Just before she went under, however, she distinctly heard a loud, dark voice, which she reasoned could only of belonged to the monster referred to as Diablo…

"**The Terror."**

**-Accelerator's Location-**

"God damn it, stop fucking moving!" Accelerator shouted. He stomped the ground, forcing up a metal plate up, and then hitting it, launching the plate at the mechanical being. The machine, however, quickly moved to the left, aided by what seemed to be a variety of boosters hidden in it's back. The initial missile barrage by the machine did nothing, due to Accelerator's Vector Change, but the machine's manoeuvrability was quickly becoming an issue.

"You sound frustrated, Number One!" Worst mocked.

"Shut up!" Accelerator spat, a definite threatening tone in his voice.

"Don't worry! Misaka will fix this!" Worst sparked and discharged several bolts of electricity toward the machine. However, its boosters quickly launched it out of the way of the bolts, quickly and effectively dodging the entire assault.

"…Fix it, huh?" Accelerator snickered.

"Shut up! Misaka is just getting warmed up!" Worst shouted, once again discharging even more electricity. Just like before, the machine dodged the attacks, angering Worst further. Unlike before, however, the machine aimed its cannon-like arms down at its attacker, and a barrage of small waves of energy fired off. Worst discharged her electricity again into the waves, but it did very little to halt the onslaught, forcing Worst to jump out of the way, the waves hitting the ground and scorching it on impact. "Jeeze! This thing is armed to the teeth!"

"High-powered plasma cannon… multi-missile launchers… rapid energy pulse cannons… plus being fucking fast…" Accelerator gritted his teeth. "This fucking thing is built for a warzone, not fucking security detail!"

"Misaka's idea is making more and more sense Tou-san." Worst replied. "Kind of surprised that they'd leave this thing here to collect dust; it was clearly designed to live combat…"

"Doesn't fucking matter… I'm going to break this fucker into a million pieces!" Accelerator shouted, stomping the ground and propelling himself into the air toward the machine. It dashed quickly out of the way and moved behind Accelerator, aiming its arm cannons at Accelerator's back and opening fire. The Number One Esper's Vector change reflected the small barrage back toward the machine, and as if it was surprised, the reflected barrage hit it dead on, the light energy marking his casing, and the machine blasted itself backward with its booster array. It boosted once more as Worst fired another barrage of electric bolts. The machine's body shifted in response, and its massive cannon presented itself again, and it fired off its plasma ray, discharging a massive red blast of energy toward Worst.

"If only I could hack this thing… it'd make a lovely little pet." Worst said, discharging a massive surge of electricity toward the plasma. The red blast power completely overpowered the electric burst like nothing, and upon realizing that, Worst ran out of the blast's way, letting it hit the ground, making a large red explosion. Worst took out a steel nail, charged it up, and fired it off with massive speed, but the machine turned its body and fired off another plasma blast, and like before, the electric-based attack didn't even slow down the blast, the nail disintegrating quickly. Worst was able to dodge again, but was knocked off her feet by the explosive result. "Oww… Misaka's butt hurts…"

"_**Target Verified."**_ The voice came again, as the machine aimed its cannon at the downed Worst. _**"Commencing hostilities."**_ A red blast flew from the cannon, aimed right for Worst. Accelerator launched himself downward and landed right in front of the blast, and Accelerator's Vector Change deflecting it back. The machine, however dodged the blast, but was caught off guard by a steel nail fired off by Worst, which flew right into the side of it's chest cannon, the electrical discharge breaking into its circuits. The surge of electricity seemed to cause some form of malfunction, as the machine started to spark, and just hung there in the air.

"This thing dies right now…!" Accelerator said with a hint of joy in his threatening voice, as he suddenly shot up straight toward the red and black machine. It tried to raise its right arm to attack, but Accelerator reached it first, and promptly ripped the cannon-arm off violently. Next, he smashed his fist into the chest cannon, and ripped it out of the machine's chest. Finally, Accelerator laughed as he clasped his hands together and smashed it down on it, knocking him down at an angel. Its boosters seemed to try and start up to try to regain its balance. But it never got a chance; Worst fired off another nail, lodging it into its back. The machine sparked more, and strangely, started to speak again.

"_**Destroy… Destroy… Protect. Destroy. Protect. Protect."**_ The machined alternated back and forth between the two words, leaving a bewildered feeling in Accelerator and Worst… but this feeling was quickly disregarded. One final nail shot into it sealed its fate, as pieces of it started to explode and break off as it fell. It crashed violently into the Internecine Driver, and exploded on contact. The Internecine sparked and flashed, before pieces of it started to blow apart itself. It wasn't a massive explosion, but several interconnecting pieces were blown apart, and eventually, the Internecine's flashing lights shut off. The lights turned from red back to blue, but there were no longer any streams of data coming from the now blank screens. Accelerator landed, and looked around for a moment. He clicked his tongue and clicked off his electrode.

"You sure you can walk on your own Tou-san?" Worst said as she got up, taking notice that Accelerator abandoned his cane some time ago.

"Tch… I'll be fine." Accelerator said as he started to walk. There was a slight stumble in his steps, but he managed to stand up straight regardless.

"…Number One. Why did you come here?" Worst asked. Unlike her usual joking and prankster remarks, the question seemed genuine.

"Returning a favor." Accelerator replied. "Without that Driver, this facility is finished. Those fucking digital people and creatures will die off. No traps waiting outside for when whatever the fuck they are fighting is taken care of."

"…Ah. Makes sense." Worst replied with a smile. "Tou-san wanted to try and be the hero."

"Shut up!"

**-Gilgamesh's Location-**

"…Whoa… what the hell happened…?" Gilgamesh said on both surprise and confusion. He and his men were previously fighting an army of soldiers, but all of a sudden, the entire world started to distort, and like shattering glass, the foes they were fighting had vanished. The artificial sky vanished as well, and even the randomly elevated floor re-set itself to its single plane, as if nothing had happened to it previously. The lights were still on; florescent lights from the highs ceiling brightened the area.

"I don't know… I guess we won?" One of Gilgamesh's men replied. Equally confused comments and murmurs escaped from the crowd.

"Guess that Driver-thing is blown to bits… and that's why this suddenly looks like an ordinary warehouse." Enkidu said.

"All then… I suppose there is only one thing left to do…" Gilgamesh said. "Men! Ransack this place! If it looks valuable and isn't nailed to the floor, take it!"

"Aye sir!" His men shouted in confident joy, each member spreading out to try and find their way to the floors above, eager to make some decent coin off the valuable technology that still remains in the facility. The only one's remaining were Gilgamesh himself and Enkidu.

"What should we do, sir?" Enkidu asked.

"Isn't it obvious…?" Gilgamesh replied, lightly tapping the steel door behind him, blocking his path. "Make sure everyone gets out of here. It's the least we can do for a welcoming present for our new recruit!"

**-Touma's Location-**

"Having fun yet, Kamijou-san…?" Dynamo, for what must have been for the sixth time in their fight, knocked down the Imagine Breaker. But like so many times before, Touma got back up.

"Sure, keep talking!" Touma charged, trying to punch the Plasma Caster. However, Dynamo moved to the side, and swiftly kicked Touma's side. With Dynamo's enhanced strength, the kick launched Touma into the side of the room, and Touma slowly slumped to the ground due to the impact. Dynamo quickly walked over to him, and lifted him up, and held him against the wall.

"Sorry Kamijou-san… but what I intend to do is too important to me to give up." Dynamo said. "You will frown upon it now, but once you see the end result, you'll understand the sacrifices me and Shurui are making are worth it. You just have to wait and see…" Dynamo trialed up, but Touma suddenly reached up and grabbed Dynamo's arm with his left hand.

"Innocent people will be hurt… and if that kind of outcome is unacceptable…!" Touma suddenly punched Dynamo across the face, the impact forcing the Plasma Caster to let go, and knocking him backward. Dynamo regained his balance, but Touma had quickly ran up and punched him across the face again; once with his left, and then a stronger punch with his right, knocking Dynamo onto his back with a trickle of blood coming from the side of his mouth. "Hey… Plasma Caster… are you going to just lie there on the floor?" Dynamo looked up, and whipped off the blood, climbing back onto his feet.

"You can really take a hit Kamijou-san… but I wonder how long until you break!" Dynamo opened up his hand and fired off a wave of blue plasma toward the Imagine Breaker. He raised his right arm to block the blast; the Imagine Breaker doing its work. But from behind the blast, Dynamo suddenly punched through it and knocked Touma flat on his back. Dynamo stomped down hard on Touma's stomach, and then kicked him into a wall. Dynamo chuckled with a small grin, but it quickly faded as Touma got onto his feet again. He charged straight at Dynamo, who dodged rather easily. In their passing, Dynamo kneed Touma in the stomach, then clasped his hands together and smashed them into Touma's back, knocking him to the ground. Dynamo kicked him away again, harsher this time. But the same thing happened again.

No matter how many times Dynamo knocked Touma down; he would always get right back up.

'What is with this guy…?' Dynamo thought. 'With this suit's strength, he should have gone down ages ago… how the hell is he able to get back up after hits like this…!?' His thoughts were interrupted when Touma charged at him again. He responded similar to before, dodged the attack and retaliated with a punch to knock him back. But this time Touma caught his punch. And before Dynamo could comment, Touma punched him across the face again, making Dynamo stagger backward. "H-how the hell…"

"I can't afford to lose here, Dynamo." Touma said. "There is too much at stake."

"…You are a complete idiot…!" Dynamo replied. "Do you really think you can save every man, woman and child just with your right hand…!?"

"No. I know full well my own limitations…" Touma replied. "So I'll just have to settle for saving everyone I can. It's simple as that."

"Why… why do you push yourself so hard.. for a bunch of people you'll never meet, people who will never even care about you; never getting so much as a thank you for your pain and suffering!?"

"That doesn't matter." Touma replied. "I don't need a reason to help someone. I do what I do simply because it is the right thing to do. I have this power here in my right hand, and it wouldn't feel right if I didn't use it for something that benefits people."

"What… kind of reasoning is that!?"

"It's all I need, no more, no less." Touma replied with determined eyes. Dynamo gritted his teeth and charged at Touma with a chambered fist.

'What the hell is this guy thinking…!? Just because it's the right thing to do!? How can he think like that!? I'll show him… I'll show him the fault in that logic…!' Dynamo thought as he threw his punch… missing his target. Touma moved out of the way just as Dynamo attacked. In shock, the Plasma Caster turned his head toward the Imagine Breaker.

"You really think that in order to protect a girl you need to destroy the world…? I'm going to shatter that fucked up illusion of yours!" Touma threw a punch with his right hand into the center of Dynamo's face with enough force to completely shatter his visor. Dynamo was launched by the punch into a wall. The impact combined with the force of Touma's punch was more than enough to render the Plasma Caster unconscious. After the impact, Dynamo's eyes slowly closed as he slumped forward, face first into the ground. Touma panted, exhausted by the whole ordeal. He slumped to one knee, clutching one of his ribs, but suddenly got back up, and started for the door.

"…That's right." He said, opening the door. "There is still one last fight to settle…"

* * *

**No top-authors note this time... i figured you guys would like to just jump straight into the story considering how close to the end we are. I'll keep it like this until the very end. I hope you enjoyed chapter 17. ^^**


	18. Endless Fiction

Black. It was all she could see. It was everywhere she turned. Mikoto's electricity wouldn't come, no matter how much she tried. The darkness was everywhere, and it was slowly starting to consume her. It moved onto her, creeping up her skin, and seemed to dig under, as if it was drilling its way in. It felt like it was crushing her, the pressure increased all around as a strange uncomfortable feeling was creeping up from her toes and her finger tips, slowly consuming her body. The feeling finally reached her brain, and suddenly the pressure was released, only to come crashing back from all directions. She felt like her entire body was about to break…

She screamed and shot upward, panting. She stared down at her sheets, trying to calm herself from whatever she had just experienced. 'W-wait… my sheets..?' Mikoto thought as she looked around; she was in her room in Tokiwadai. The room seemed… brighter than normal, but that aside, everything was normal. Two beds, one for her and one for Kuroko. The twin desks, closets, everything was the same. She was even in her traditional Gekota pyjamas. The only odd thing was that she was completely alone, despite waking up in what appeared to be morning. 'What is… going on? Where is that Diablo thing…?' She kept looking; but everything seemed completely normal. 'C…could have been… a dream…? If it was… how long I was out of it… it felt like weeks went by…' She got up and checked her closet; inside laid her usual things, namely her normal Tokiwadai uniform. She changed into it, but the feeling didn't leave. 'Something… something is definitely not right…' Regardless; she reasoned that nothing would be solved if she just stayed in her dorm room. She found the halls seemed empty, but she did manage to find actual people once she entered the city itself. As she walked, she started to overhear other people speaking in a grim tone.

"Another accident yesterday… the traffic system seems to be getting worse and worse."

"Yeah… they said that the virus would be taken care of by now, but yesterday it marks the… what, sixth? Seventh?"

"Eighth actually… poor girl, she was so young…"

'What are they talking about…? A virus in the traffic system?' Mikoto asked herself. Suddenly a horn blared, and the sound of a metal on metal collision rang from behind her. She turned and frowned at what she saw; two cars had crash into each other, and one of the two crashed into a wall, apparently hitting someone on the street in the progress; there was a hand sticking out from the wreckage. Mikoto walked forward until she heard a strange crunch. She lifted up her foot to see an array of flowers, which seemed to be designed to be worn. 'T-these are…' The thought clicked and she ran over to the wreckage. "Uiharu! Uiharu, are you ok!? Can you hear me!?" She didn't hear a response. "W-wait! Hold on! I'll move this real quick!" Mikoto focused for a moment to make electricity, but it never came. "N-no… no! Not this again!" She tried again, but once again, no result. "W-why… come on! She's hurt…!" No matter how much she screamed and fought, her esper ability wouldn't activate. She was completely powerless to help one of her best friends. She started to look around, seeing people gather, but no-one doing anything. "W-what's wrong with you people!? Isn't anyone going to even try!?"

"…And that makes nine." One man said.

"Don't even bother; that girl is done for. Someone call anti-skill to clean up the place." Another said.

"How can you say that!? She could still be alive! She's hurt! Come on, help me!" Mikoto said, approaching the wreckage, trying to move a piece of metal out of the way with her bare hands.

"Least she didn't suffer… I feel sorry for that Judgment Teleporter… if she hadn't gone into that building alone…" A man trailed off and Mikoto froze up.

"J-Judgment Teleporter…!? K-Kuroko… too…!?" Mikoto let go of the wreckage, a cold sweat dripping down her face. "N-No… there's no way…" She took off in a sudden run, heading for the Judgment office. She eventually made her way then and barged in without thinking, to find an empty room. "Where… where is she… she can't be…" Mikoto took off running again, this time to Josephs. It was completely empty. She ran all around town, searching all of her usual hang outs, nothing. She didn't even find her usual friends, namely Saten. She was about to check another spot but she suddenly stopped.

"W-wait… bad things are happening to people I know… oh no! Touma!" She took off running, trying to make her way to Touma's dorm. She ran as fast as her legs would carry her. Eventually, she was at a crosswalk that would take her to Touma's dorm, when she actually saw her spiky-haired lover fiddling with a vending machine; it must have eaten his money again. "Touma! Hey, over here! A-are you ok!?" She shouted. Touma looked up and turned toward her with a confused look.

"Biri-Biri… what are you doing all the way out here…?" Touma said as he started to walk over to her. He started to walk over the crosswalk when the street light suddenly changed without warning. The sound of a car coming careening down the street quickly started to get louder.

"TOUMA! GET OVER HERE, QUICK!" Mikoto shouted.

"What are you-" He never even got a chance to finish his sentence. A red car with completely black windows slammed right into his side, launching him down the street. The car stopped shortly after the impact, and the engine seemed to turn off. Mikoto screamed and ran over to the Imagine Breaker.

"Touma! Touma! Are you ok!? Talk to me, please!" She shouted. She kneeled down and held up his body; it was completely limp. "No… no no no no… not you… why… why you!?" She screamed, tears falling from her eyes. She didn't even notice the car's door suddenly open up and a buckled boot step out of it, not the footsteps the person made as it approached her from behind. "Wake up… wake up Touma…! There's no way… there's no way a hit like that would kill you, right!? You took my railgun… Accelerator… and even an arch-angel with a dive into an ocean alone! There is no way you can die like this, right!?" She shouted, cradling the body of her lover into her chest as the tears fell. She didn't notice, but the world started to fade out. Sounds of a bustling city started to vanish, and the towering building faded into darkness. Soon all that was around her was the sound of her own tears, and the sound of slow, heavy footsteps. Her cries grew louder until the mysterious figure stood next to her. She turned quickly toward the person, only to have a hand with three claws, outstretched right in front of her face. She didn't even move as the claws slowly started to close around her head; she felt completely numb, except for a stabbing pain in her heart. A loud dark voice that seemed familiar rang out again.

"**Shh… let me make the pain go away… once and for all…"**

Crack.

Mikoto's eyes snapped open to find the devilish creature known as Diablo, suddenly flying toward its right, and Touma with his arm outstretched. It wasn't hard to figure out what transpired; Touma punched Diablo across his masked face. Diablo fell onto its side, skidding across the ground. Mikoto's legs suddenly gave way and she fell forward, and Touma caught her. She instinctively clung to him, sweat rolling down her face and panting; she felt completely exhausted.

"Misaka… are you ok?" Touma asked.

"Y-yeah… I-I… just feel tired… is all…" Mikoto replied. She was still shaken up, but was relaxing rather quickly without being bombarded with disturbing images.

"So the savior is here…" Shurui said in a very not amused tone. "And alone… where is Dynamo?"

"Not sure. Last I saw him he was out cold on the ground." Touma replied.

"….Diablo. Come." The large devil-like monster suddenly got to its feet and flew toward Shurui, and stood in front of her.

"…What's going on? Why didn't my Imagine Breaker work on that thing?"

"It's basically the same reason why it won't instantly kill Innocentius… a seal holding him in this world… me." Shurui replied. "My body acts as the seal keeping him in this world… you're going to pay for what you did to Dynamo."

"Eh? Why are you so worried about him…?" Touma asked.

"He was against many things; coming to this city, the target of the memory trick test, the ones affected by Endless Fiction… yet he still stands by me, supporting me even though he was completely against it… how could I not be worried!?" Shurui shouted.

"…You care about him a lot, don't you…?"

"Of course I do… I keep trying to push him off, so he won't have to suffer along with me with a mass-destructive goal of mine for the greater good, but no matter how much I push, annoy, and anger him, he always shrugs it off…!" Shurui replied. "And now… he keeps getting hurt just for me…!"

"No matter how much you provoke him, he is completely unwilling to betray you. Don't you think that's a sign you should have stopped!?" Touma shouted.

"…I can't. I have to see this through to the end… otherwise all those things people said about me will be proved true…" Shurui took a deep breath. "Diablo! Take them down!" The large creature spread its wings and flew straight toward Touma, baring its claws. Diablo swung its claw down, just narrowly missing Touma as he picked up Mikoto and ran, the claws easily tearing through the steel plating on the ground.

"W-whoa! That thing isn't screwing around!" Touma said.

"I-idiot! W-why the hell are you c-carrying me!?" Mikoto shouted.

"I-I don't know! My body just moved!"

"T-then put me down you idiot!"

"Hold on, here it comes again!" Touma started running, carrying the embarrassed Mikoto along with him, as Diablo chased them. Each sweep of Diablo's claws, Touma just narrowly dodged. "This thing is fast…!"

"D-don't stop! To the right! To the right!" Mikoto shouted. Touma dashed and tripped toward his right, landing on his back and holding Mikoto with his left arm as he slid along the ground, dodging a large blast of red lightning. Diablo quickly appeared, lumbering over the couple with its arms ready to slam down on them, but Mikoto discharged a large blast of her own electricity, the attack launching Diablo through the air against its will, and promptly landed on its own back before getting right side up again.

"That is a ride I don't want to go on again…" Touma groaned. The combination of his previous injuries and skidding along a metal floor back first was making this experience a rather uncomfortable one.

"Hey… are you alright Touma…?" Mikoto asked, more or less sitting on his stomach.

"Yeah… just sore all over…" Touma said, sitting up a bit; the shift in position forcing Mikoto into his lap. Diablo started to spark all over with red electricity, and discharged a massive blast of electricity at the duo. Touma pulled Mikoto into his chest with his left hand and reached out with his right, his Imagine Breaker canceling out the red electricity. "…Hey, Misaka?"

"Y-yeah?" Mikoto replied, a little red from their current position.

"There is no way I can fight that Diablo-thing…" Touma said. "But… if what she said is true, I can kill it with my Imagine Breaker by touching the magician… can you keep that thing off me…?"

"…Yeah, sure." Mikoto nodded. "No problem… it probably can't use that ability it used on me without breaking eye-contact… so it won't use it if it has to guard its master…"

"So no cheap tricks…" Touma said. Mikoto got back onto her feet and Touma stood up. "Let's do this!" Touma charged straight for Shurui, and Diablo moved in-between the two. Mikoto blasted Diablo with her own electricity, forcing the devil-like monster back and letting Touma slip pass it. Shurui used her Red Flare spell, unleashing a large red blast of energy toward the Imagine Breaker. Touma negated it with his right hand, but the delay let Diablo close in behind him. Mikoto jumped onto Diablo's back and grabbed its arms, and then discharged full-out onto the creature, the electrical shock.

"N-no! Diablo! Reverse the current, back feed into her!" Shurui shouted, apparently worried for her own creation. In a one verses one, Diablo held superiority, this much she was certain of. Diablo's The Terror guaranteed victory over any single opponent. Even if he was vulnerable to electricity, its Red Lightning Hose should be completely superior. But this just wasn't a one versus one anymore.

"If you really think that hurting innocent people will really help everyone…!" Touma said as he approached. Shurui crafted a red barrier to try and protect herself, but Touma's right arm easily dispelled it. "I'm going to show you how stupid that illusion is!" Touma chambered his right fist and crashed it right into Shurui's left cheek, the impact knocking Shurui backward onto the ground. Shurui's shirt flew up slightly, and a strange glowing symbol became visible on her stomach. "The seal… must be right here!"

"N-no! Don't! If you do that…!" Shurui protested as Touma touched the seal with his right hand. The cracking sound was heard as the seal's light vanished in an instant. Diablo's body suddenly went limb and Mikoto stopped her electrical discharge and jumped off the monster. Diablo slumped to its knees, and fell forward. It seemed to fade away into dust that scattered into the air around them, before vanishing completely. Shurui gritted her teeth, and quickly scooted away from Touma, and her body started to glow.

"H-hey! What are you doing?" Touma asked worriedly.

"Shut up…!" Shurui replied. "You hurt my Dynamo… you killed my Diablo… you… you are going to pay for that…!" She suddenly stood up. "I may not have enough magical power to change this whole world… but I should still be able to obliterate one little kid…!"

"What are you talking about…?" Touma said, silently clenching his right hand.

"Ye god, he who crafted the earth. He who crafted man, woman and child, lend your ear to me and head my plea! There is an error in your universe, lend me your power to correct it once and for all!"

"Stop! You don't know what you're doing!" Touma shouted.

"**ENDLESS FICTION!"** The white light started rush from Shurui's body and started to warp the room around. Touma and Mikoto looked around, waiting for it to spread outward, but it didn't; it was focusing on a single point.

Kamijou Touma.

"Touma! Look out!" Mikoto shouted. She ran toward him as the white light seems to surround him.

"Mikoto… wait…!" Touma managed to say just before the white light enveloped him, and after a moment, the light was gone… and Touma was gone as well.

"T-Touma…? Touma…?" Mikoto stuttered out, walking forward reaching for where he was, reaching for something. Nothing was there; nothing she could touch.

"I-it… worked…?" Shurui asked in disbelief. "I-I mean I didn't doubt its power but his Imagine Breaker should have stopped it…"

"W-what… did you do…!?" Mikoto asked.

"Erased him. It was like he was never born… memory of him of course will linger for awhile but that too will be gone so-" A bolt of lightning streamed right pasted her; if she hadn't moved it could have possibly torn her arm off.

"Bring… him… back." Mikoto simply demanded, the threat made very clear.

"Sorry… but I need knowledge of someone to return them…" Shurui replied. "And it appears I have already forgotten about the mysterious boy who gave me this little bruise…" A jolt of electricity ran through her and she lost her balance; it travelled right up her leg. A rush of blue electricity rammed right into her, the discharge knocking her onto her back. Her body felt numb; she could barely move. A sudden weight landed on her torso and she looked up to find a very angry Misaka Mikoto kneeling down, her knee promptly planted harshly into Shurui's chest.

"Don't. Screw. With. Me." Mikoto ran another jolt of electricity through Shurui's body. "You know very-fucking-well who I'm talking about. Bring him back or else!"

"…I don't see why it matters. He forgot this world a very long time ago it seems; according to what Dynamo heard. Now it's just set that the world will forget him as well. Equivalency will be restored. He was a kind person… but it seems like he died fighting for someone who won't remember him tomorrow. It's a shame…."

"…How could you…?" Mikoto said, a tear falling onto Shurui's face. "He was such a kind person… always going out of his way to help people; even if it would send him to the hospital. No matter how dangerous it was, he would stand up and fight for someone… even if he had no idea who they were. He… he would have helped you too, you know…? He would have…" Mikoto trailed off.

"…I'm not going to say I enjoyed it, because I didn't. He was a very fine young man… but sacrifices must be made. Even if it's just one extra life given, if it's that life that can make the world a better place, isn't it worth giving it up!?"

"He was already doing that! Even if he didn't know a single person, he would fight for them, protect them, and care for them! And what did he get for it!? Some little magician who thinks she knows what's best just thinks he's expendable kills him off! He saved this world once, you know!? He died… he died that day… but he came back anyway, as if nothing had happened to him, and went back to doing what he always did, protecting innocent people just because he wanted to! He was never rewarded; more often than not he got punished for it! But he still kept going, kept striving for what he believed in. Not even saving the world satisfied his desire to protect… because he just wanted people to be safe, and live their lives peacefully… not to be forced into it like he was some kind of tyrant, but just to show him his point of view and hope they can agree…" Mikoto's tears ran constantly as she spoke, leaving the wide-eyed Shurui to simply watch and listen to her outburst. "And… that kind of person… you killed… just to save yourself…!" Mikoto pulled Shurui up by her collar in rage. Shurui was scared; absolutely terrified of what would happen next. "You are trying to rid this world of monsters, but the only one I can see is right here! And if you want those monsters to die then let me help you!" Mikoto balled her right hand into a fist, which was positively brimming with electrical power, and she thrust it right toward the magician below her.

Crack.

A hand reached out and grabbed hers. Mikoto got even angrier than she was; surely someone walking in would have overheard or possibly even seen what had happened, so why would someone stop her!? But something seemed off; her electricity suddenly stopped working. She turned her head to see the person who stalled her wrath.

"T-T…Tou…ma…?" Mikoto barely managed to speak.

"H-how… how the hell… Endless Fiction should have… killed you…!? That was magic akin to the powers of God…!" Shurui asked, completely shocked.

"I have no idea what happened… my only explanation would have to be is that it took while for my Imagine Breaker to work…" Touma replied. "I just happened to come back to overhear… and decided to step in."

"…What the hell are you doing… you idiot!?" Shurui shouted. "Why the hell are you stopping her!? I tried to kill you just to save myself… not even caring what could have happened! So why; why are you saving me from a fate I truly deserve!?"

"What are you talking about?" Touma asked. "I really don't need a reason to save someone, do I?" Touma simply replied. Shurui couldn't possibly understand. She just tried to kill this boy, but he saved her anyway. It was all too much. The adrenalin that was keeping her mind focused suddenly didn't matter; her vision blurred, and, against her better judgment, Mikoto let her fall back down gently as Shurui's muddled mind faded into unconsciousness. The breaking of her will took a number on her mind, it seemed.

"Touma…" Mikoto said quietly. "Are… you… ok…?" She asked slowly with a worried tone.

"W-well… I'm kind of sore all over… but aside from that, I think I'm ok… no missing parts or anything." Mikoto let out a relieved sigh and hugged the Imagine Breaker. "H-hey! I'm still sore… not so rough…!" Touma returned the hug regardless.

"We will have to get you to Dr. Gekota after this, won't we?" Mikoto asked. Touma let out a nervous sigh. Suddenly, interrupting their moment, sirens started to blare.

"_**Warning! Over-current in major systems has overloaded the facility! Evacuate! Evacuate!"**_ The whole are started to shake violently; steel beams started to fall and the faint sound of explosions could be heard.

"C-Crap… when I lost it, my electricity must have seeped into the power grid…!" Mikoto said.

"Don't worry about it! Let's just go!" Touma shouted. A large steel beam fell next to them; separating them from the unconscious magician. Several more started to fall, and Touma started to make for Shurui.

"H-hey! What are you doing!?" Mikoto shouted.

"W-we can't just leave her! Gah!" Touma yelped, dodging a piece of falling concrete, kicking up a large dust cloud. Touma couldn't make it out for sure, but he thought he saw a shadowy figure suddenly slip in next to Shurui's body, pick it up, and suddenly dash away just as a large piece of the ceiling fell on the area.

"There isn't any time! We have to get out of here!" Mikoto shouted. Touma wanted to see what happened, but after a little thought, deduced who the shadowy figure must have been. There was only one person who would risk their life for Shurui, after all. He ran toward the exit with Mikoto, eager to escape with full knowledge that this mysterious incident involving a certain memory phenomena had finally come to an end.

* * *

**No Authors note at the start of this one either... as a heads up: there is one chapter left for this story to sort of wrap things up for the story... I shall speak to you all at the end of Chapter 19! Leave a review telling me how I did in the very last chapter with action in it! ^^**


	19. A Certain Memory Phenomena's End

The sound of a collapsing building filled the night's sky.

At approximately 1:52 am, building 6829 sent out an alarm to local law enforcement of an intruder on the complex. Just ten minutes later, around the time that Anti-Skill was able to respond to the alarm, the building had collapsed. No personnel were at the abandoned building and the security footage was lost in the destruction, so the cause of the destruction was immediately started, simply to try and figure out what the hell happened in this abandoned building.

No bodies were found on the base level, as well as the basement. The expansive underbelly was searched extensively, no sign of perpetrators could be found; as if whoever did this had whipped the area clean of their existence. Even after the search of the various piles of rubble, it was obvious that although the damage was catastrophic, there was no loss of life, provoking further questioning as to how and why the building was targeted. At the request of the director's board, which was directly contacted as per Academy City guidelines concerning damage in major scientific complexes, Anti-Skill started investigating the area containing the Internecine Driver.

It too, was damage, but it was much more passable than the rest of the facility. It didn't take long for the crew to find the tattered wreckage of the Internecine Driver; and the remains of the machine inside. It would take time to try and boot up the security footage in this area, noting that there was a separate system specifically for this room, as well as it being operational and simply not powered; they provided the power to the remains of the machine inside the Internecine. No form of data came from the machine, and upon scanning, it became apparent that the AI-Core for this expensive piece of military hard-ware was empty, as if nothing had ever inhabited this shell ever before. They only clue as to what the machine had experienced was its firmware log; at 1:35 am, the unit's AI-Core and all necessary drivers transferred out into an unknown outside network. The more they discovered, the more questions arose, it seemed.

Why did the alarm go off at only 1:52, while the facility's main security force was destroyed beforehand, in a situation where the security should have notified them the moment an intruder was spotted?

**-Windowless Building-**

"So… the facility was destroyed… the Internecine was damaged beyond repair, and the AI of the machine tasked with its defense is gone without a trace… I dare say that this incident was much more interesting than I initially anticipated." Aleister Crowley spoke in his usual mono-tone voice.

"Hey, don't you forget our arrangement. Information straight from the site without Anti-Skill's meddling is hard to get you informed." Tsuchimikado said.

"Of course, of course. Your compensation for acquiring such information has already been delivered." Aleister replied, closing his eyes. "And the details you were able to get about the conflict inside that building before it went up in smoke earned you a little bonus… it is rare that I'm unable to observe such a thing after all."

"…I am aware that my contract says I can't ask any questions, but may I go ahead and inquire about something?" Tsuchimikado asked.

"Our dealings are finished; you did your part, I did mine." Aleister replied in an amused tone. "Go ahead; the incident is over now anyway..."

"What was the true purpose of that facility?" Tsuchimikado asked. Aleister closed his eyes again, and remained in silence for a time.

"…An old personal experiment." Aleister replied. "The human race, by definition, is a race of pointless conflict over power. You've seen what happens when people get access to power; it corrupts them. Be it financial, political, magical, or esper-related, the abuse the power they have been given for their own benefit, and that in turn causes conflict. And when that conflict escalates; lives are lost. Be it for those foolish pursuits of power, or a quest to destroy those who seek power, human lives always end other human lives. It is more than obvious to me at this point that the human race will not go extinct naturally, oh no… the human race will end itself with its own hand; they have already been provided the tools to do so… so it is just a matter of time."

"Then what were the details of that little experiment then?" Tsuchimikado asked with a serious tone.

"To test my theory, you see." Aleister replied. "The Internecine Driver was designed to replicate objects as well as intelligent life; including human ones. Though our dear friend Dynamo found a much more… creative way of using it, the main purpose of that system was for my experiment." He paused for a moment, seeming to collect his thoughts. "Out of approximately 20,000 separate instances of creating a civilization, 16,312 incidents ended in self-destruction, while only 3688 were able to find a way to prevent mutual destruction. The experiment concluded that there is an 81.56% chance that humanity will end itself after 20,000 tests, leaving only a 18.44% chance of survival… as you can tell, these results are rather… unpleasant. But then I had a thought…"

"And that thought was…?"

"If something specifically designed to guide them, protect them, and eliminate threats, and furthermore, evolve with the race was present, would that change the outcome? Thus… the Hustler-One program was made. That machine was not only charged in security of the base, but also to keep the created worlds alive… by guidance, and by eliminating key threats such as people plotting destruction, and those seen as growing too powerful, possibly powerful enough to overthrow the Hustler-One program… although it appears that the system needed to upgrade its systems to properly evolve with the civilizations created, in the next series of test, the survivability rate rose to over 91%, just with the Hustler-One program in place…"

"And the remaining 9% were the ones able to surpass your system… but in the 91%, the forced death of destructive individuals, although harsh, lead to civilizations to flourish…" Tsuchimikado concluded simply. "Your security system in place was a left-over from the very last experiment; why did it hold off on contacting Anti-Skill? Judging from what I saw; your machine could have easily dealt with the intruders."

"…That answer is one that eludes even me, but I have a theory…" Aleister replied. "Perhaps in its absence of a civilization it could guard, it discovered the outside world… and judged that the outside world was its new tasked thing to protect. It very well could of let intruders inside on purpose to assist its main directive… and its involvement with protecting the Internecine, although a failure, was necessary, perhaps seeing some use for keeping it in place. And in its destruction lead the AI to escape in an attempt to preserve itself so it may accomplish its goal at a later date… the Railgun's electrical outburst is what caused the building's destruction, but while she was enraged, her electricity re-connected the facility to my network for a brief moment… and that's how it probably escaped, with the alert to Anti-Skill being an afterthought."

"If all of that is true, then here is… Hustler-One now?" Tsuchimikado.

"Somewhere in my network… probably biding its time, searching for a facility in which it can use. I can hear it whispering every now and then… it probably will leave my network soon; I monitor it so closely it doesn't have a chance to event attempt to take it over. I predict an old weapon's lab is where it will hide out…"

"And what if it does manage to revive itself… and sees you as a threat?" Tsuchimikado asked. Aleister chucked out loud.

"Then the next experiment will begin."

* * *

Kanzaki Kaori's leaving with reasons of persuading various magical institutions, including Necessarius, seemed to be something of a wise move.

Using her status as a saint, she was more than able to succeed in gaining support in making sure Endless Fiction couldn't be used. Although it became clear that the final confrontation had already happened, in hidden agreement with Anti-Skill, they started an investigation with three main goals.

1. Capture the thief known as Gilgamesh and retrieve his stolen arsenal of magical weapons.

2. Retrieve the Book of Divinations

3. Capture and eliminate Kureiji Shurui and her associate.

The second objective was completed almost right after the investigation's start; it was found under rubble; virtually unharmed from the destruction. It was promptly returned to his original location before its theft.

The first one, however, proved to be much more difficult. Gilgamesh left the country approximately 12 hours after the facilities destruction, his entire crew leaving with him. The only one able to make contact with the Big Bridge guild was Kanzaki Kaori herself, who promptly attacked the guild's leader. The clash was said to have lasted for at least five days. No victor was known, as the match happened in a private setting. However, the saint was unable to capture Gilgamesh, nor retrieve any of his stolen arms of war.

As side note, the actual duel between these titans of power was detailed in full in Gilgamesh's personal memoires, known simply as "The Many Epics of Gilgamesh." However, the details of this duel were still left unknown to most of the world, as the only ones able to read Gilgamesh's personal papers were Gilgamesh himself and his top three subordinates, promptly referred to as "The Three Fiends of the Big Bridge."

But that, along with other exploits of this famous Thieves Guild, is another story for another time.

The third objective, however, was never completed, or was its completion ever in reach. Even after five months of investigation, nothing turned up. As of the date of the facility's destruction, July 23rd, the pair of Dynamo and Kureiji Shurui, have been labelled as missing.

**-Small Town, a Fair Distance Away From Academy City-**

"Ah… ugah… huh…?" Shurui awoke slowly. She looked around; she appeared to be in a small room, lying on a bed. She was covered in white sheets, and the room appeared to be a dull brown. "Where… am I…?"

"A safe distance away." At her bed-side. Dynamo, in what could only be described as his causal clothes, was sitting. "I was starting to get worried; you've been out for a while."

"I have…?" Shurui asked. She looked around again; it was just a generic room, probably a slow-scale hotel. Probably with no security at all… considering circumstances, Dynamo probably broke into this room. But she put the details aside for now. "…What happened?"

"After you passed out, the facility started to cave in… I stepped in and got you out of there, and here we are… not much of a story." Dynamo replied. "It was a true final climax though… kind of makes me wish for a sequel for our little game, you know?" Dynamo joked. Shurui smiled in response.

"…Dynamo; do you remember that little town I told you I lived in… that small little house I told you about?" Shurui asked.

"I think so… you did show it to me a little while after we met." Dynamo leaned back in his chair.

"Good…" Shurui replied. "I know I've asked a lot for you in this past week… but do you think you could do me one last thing?"

"Em… I don't see why not…?" Dynamo said in a confused tone.

"Can you take me home, Dynamo?" Shurui asked.

"…Why? What about Endless Fiction…?"

"I learned something… I'm not very good at choosing who should live and who should die." Shurui replied. "That little fact is more than enough for me to decide against it… if I can't make the right choice about whether or not a single person should be allowed to live or be killed… I'm very ill-suited for the position of being the fixer of the world… besides…" Shurui turned toward Dynamo. "There is already someone out there making great strides toward fixing this rotting world anyway."

"…So you fell for him after all." Dynamo laughed. "Here I thought the rumors about this Kami-yan Disease were just rumors… hehe…"

"Stop mixing up respect with sexual desire, you game-crazed little jackass…" Shurui replied in a huff, turning her head away.

"…In that case, I'd be more than happy to escort you back to your home, Shurui." Dynamo replied, standing up. Shurui slowly turned her head back toward him with a small smile.

"Dynamo… thanks for everything you've done…" Shurui said, sitting up a little.

"…I don't know why you're thanking me. I'm just an opportunist after all; I've been doing all of this simply because I felt like it." Dynamo replied. Shurui smiled, and promptly pulled Dynamo down onto the bed suddenly, catching the Plasma Caster off guard. "Hey… what was that for?"

"You're such a bad liar, my little Dynamo." Shurui said in amusement at the sight of Dynamo lying on his stomach in her lap. Dynamo made a face of annoyance, but after a bit his face softened into a smile.

"Ok… maybe I lied about just doing everything just because I felt like it… just a little bit."

* * *

At approximately 2:30 am on July 23rd, Kamijou Touma was admitted to his usual hospital, treated in his usual room, and by his usual doctor. The only unusual thing was that there was an unusual girl by Kamijou Touma's side, one who refused to leave her position; no matter what Touma's Doctor told her.

Shortly after escaping the facility, when they managed to reach an area where they could rest, Touma promptly passed out. Mikoto frantically tried to awaken the Imagine Breaker, when the Accelerator walked up upon the scene; notably appearing somewhat angry. Worst must have done something after the facility went down, thus Accelerator's anger and Worst's sudden absence. Accelerator saw the sleeping Touma and the frantic Mikoto, and merely slung one of Touma's arms over his shoulder and with a look signalled Mikoto to do the same. The Railgun still had absolutely no positive feelings for Accelerator, but she did acknowledge that Touma was simply too heavy for her to carry on her own, so she merely nodded and accepted Accelerator's help.

Their walk was silent, but they eventually made their way to the hospital. Mikoto handled the admittance information, and once a certain frog-faced doctor, the Heaven Canceller, arrived, Accelerator took that as his assistance no longer being required and left without a word. Strangely, although Memory Trick was casted, the Heaven Canceller was completely unaffected, but Mikoto decided to leave well enough alone.

Kamijou Touma was unconscious for five days. On the fourth day, memory of Misaka Mikoto returned, and her cell-phone was bombarded with calls and messages from her friends, asking her where she was and where she'd been. It was the first time in the past four days Mikoto felt happy; the incident had finally been resolved. She was so happy, she went out and bought two 2000 yen Hot-Dogs; one for her and one for Touma, thinking that he'd wake up that day. Unfortunately, he didn't, and she ended up giving away the second one the Heaven Canceller, thinking it was a good thank you for caring for someone so close to her, as she had become aware the frog-faced doctor did so rather frequently.

On the fifth day, at 11:00 am, simply enough, the eyes of Kamijou Touma finally opened.

**-Touma's Hospital Room-**

"Mmm…" Touma hummed. "Ah… huh?" Touma opened his eyes fully, observing the room. It was his usual hospital room alright. Everything was the same as it always was when he was admitted here… well, except for one thing; Mikoto was sitting on a chair right next to his bed, with her body slumped forward onto the bed, her eyes closed, sleeping. Touma smiled. "She must have been awake all night… I wonder how long I've been out of it this time…" Touma decided to let her sleep, gently running his fingers through her hair, but it wasn't very long before she heard a pleasant hum from the sleeping girl before she woke up.

"Y-you're awake…! Eep!" Mikoto shot upward in reaction to Touma literally playing with her hair.

"E-eh… sorry." Touma replied.

"I-its fine… y-you just caught me off guard is all…" Mikoto replied, blushing. "S-so… how are you feeling…?"

"A little groggy… did you bring me here all by yourself?" Touma asked.

"N-no… Accelerator helped me… you've been out for five days you know…"

"Five days huh… no matter what I seem to do I always end up spending so much time here." Touma sighed. "Wait… five days… what about Memory Trick?"

"Completely gone." Mikoto replied happily. "The effects of it are completely gone, and they aren't being re-piled on; the fight is over."

"Thank goodness… I didn't want to have to fight either Shurui or Dynamo again…" Touma smiled and let out a relieved sigh. "So… you were ready to kill someone just over me, huh?"

"E-e-eh!?" Mikoto sputtered. "I-I-I d-d-don't know w-w-what your t-talking about!" She fidgeted in her chair. "B-b-besides! Y-you hate that kind of stuff!"

"Yeah, I do." Touma said. "But… knowing someone is willing to go that far for me is still rather flattering I guess…"

"I-I s-see…" Mikoto stuttered again. "…Touma?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you." Mikoto said. "Thank you so much… for everything. I-I know putting up with me must be hard so… thank you…"

"Don't think anything of it, Mikoto." Touma replied. "It's a boyfriend's job to put up with his girlfriend's antics, isn't it?"

"B-boyfriend… G-g-girlfriend… ahh…" Mikoto turned beat red and held her face, while Touma sighed.

"Still not used to this kind of thing…?" Touma asked, sitting up.

"I-It's s-still new to me- eep!" She let out a high-pitch sound as Touma lifted her face up and leaned in; planting a small kiss on Mikoto's lips. It was short, but to her, it felt like minutes had passed by. She was left speechless when they parted.

"I figured… a good way to ease you into this would be to do it personally…" Touma smiled as Mikoto's lips quivered.

"I-idiot… that's totally… not fair!" Mikoto shouted, pulling Touma's head toward hers; kissing him again. It was much more passionate; their lips brushed back and forth, occasionally sucking on each other's mouth and even a little tongue here and there. After a short while they parted, both of red faced.

"Wow…" Touma said after a short silence.

"I-I can take care of m-myself… you know…" She trailed off, looking away. Touma nodded, and rested his back against the pillow he was sleeping on. "….Touma?"

"Yeah…?"

"Is it really true… that your own memory won't ever come back?" She asked.

"…The only things that could possibly return my memory would be magic or possibly even esper abilities… but in that case, my right arm would cancel both out, even if they did manage to work." Touma replied. "…Technology maybe… but I don't think the ability to do so is available yet… otherwise the doctor would have told me the moment it was possible." Mikoto got up and sat on the edge of Touma's bed.

"So… it's not that it can't… it's that it might be able to eventually."

"Just what are you trying to get at, Misaka?"

"Touma; you fought tooth and nail, just to help this city remember me… I want… to be able to do the same for you." Mikoto replied. Touma opened his mouth in surprise.

"Mikoto… you… don't have to do that… it might not even be possible."

"It doesn't matter; I want to try." Mikoto replied. "Even if I can't… something good can be born from it anyway, so please… just let me try…"

"…I doubt if i said no, it would be the end of it anyway." Touma replied. Mikoto responded by scooting closer and hugging him, resting her head on his shoulder.

"You've just done so much more me… I just want an opportunity to return the favor… thank you so much…" Mikoto said. Touma smiled and placed one hand onto Mikoto's back and gently stroked it at Mikoto clung to him, enjoying the closeness; silently thinking of what the future holds… and whether or not Mikoto's desire will come to pass. But he put the thought aside; that was another thought for another day. Right now… he just wanted to spend his time with his little Railgun.

* * *

_**-We Have Come to Terms-**_

* * *

**And there you have it. That was the Conclusion to Forgotten. So, my dear friends who have stuck it out to the end, what did you think of it all; this little adventure we've been on of you reading and me writing? Leave a review to tell me how well I handled this piece of work, and how much/what you liked about it.**

**Some of you may be asking if i'll do a sequel or not... all i will say is; not right away. It will more than likely be a long time before I re-visit to Toaru-verse created by Forgotten for a sequel... but keep an eye on my account here; i may surprise you. That said, I may also be doing some shorter works to kind of tide people over before I start working on a sequel, so keep your eyes ready!**

**All that said... I would very humbly like to thank each and every one of you for reading and supporting me. This is actually the very first story i was able to complete on , and i can only believe that it is your guy's support that made it all happen. So, I sincerely thank you all, I very much appreciate it! ^^**

**I'll see you all later, have a good day! ^^**


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